The 17N transfer case was referred to the Lamia Court of First Instance for the Execution of Sentences by decision of the Higher Special Court (AED). Dimitris Koufodinafrom the rural prisons where he was serving his sentence to the Domokos prison to be judged again.

In particular, according to the decision of the AED, the following issues will be re-examined:

a) the decision of the Secretary of anti-criminal policy, according to which the transfer of Dim. Koufontina in Domokos

b) the physical act of switching itself, and

(c) Rejection of a prisoner’s request to be transferred to Korydallos prisons.

Specifically, Joanna Kurtovik and Dimitris Sarafianos, advocates for member 17N, state the following in their joint statement:

“With number no. 4/2022 The Supreme Special Court, consisting of the chairmen of the three highest courts (Supreme Court, Council of State and the Chamber of Accounts), as well as members of these courts and professors from the law faculties of the country, adopted 19/ Application of Dimitris Koufontinas No. 7/2021 that the dismissal of his appeal against his unlawful transfer to Domoko on the grounds of incompetence was unlawful.And after that he referred the case to the Lamia Court of Execution of Sentences, which is called upon to re-investigate the legality of the actions of the secretary general of anti-crime policy, as essentially competent, according to the AED decision.

In particular, this decision is a continuation of a case that occupied public space and court records in early 2021, when Dimitris Koufontinas went on a long hunger strike after he was urgently transferred from rural prisons where he was serving his term. sentence from 2018, in Domokos prisons, a (high) security prison, with overcrowding and punitively unfavorable conditions for a prisoner who served 20 years in prison without ever creating any problems that would justify his transfer.

The transfer was made in continuation of the photographic provisions of the law of the current government, according to which the conditions of his stay in rural prisons became prohibitive, the law of which, by all accounts, was specifically directed at this prisoner, so the prisons were called “Kufontin’s Law”. According to its provisions, rural prison inmates who do not meet the strict requirements of the new rules were to be transferred back to the prisons from which they left.

In accordance with these provisions, Dimitris Koufontinas was forced to return to the underground wing of the Korydallos prison, where he served his sentence from 2002 to 2018 (never causing any problems for the inmates, staff or management).

However, the prisoner, despite these provisions, was transferred to Domoko by order of the gene. crime secretary Sofias Nicolaou, who in fact, through oral statements and official documents, falsely claimed that the prisoner had previously joined Korydallos.

Following this, Dem. Koufontinas went on a hunger strike that lasted over 60 days and crippled him, causing irreparable damage to health, causing irreparable damage and dooming him to muscle atrophy and motor incapacity.

Against this decision, his defenders appealed to the Tribunal for the Execution of Sentences, which was the three-member Lamia District Court, which refused to review the legality of the transfer, declaring itself incompetent.

The lawyers’ petition to the Supreme Court Prosecutor to appeal against the above decision was also rejected for the same reason.

In connection with the above, the lawyers applied to the State Council with a request to cancel the illegal acts and decisions of the Secretary General, which was also rejected, and this court also pleaded incompetent, considering that the case was under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Court for the Execution of Sentences.

After that, the case was transferred to the Supreme Special Court with the lawyers’ petition to eliminate the fatal conflict of powers.

Already by its aforementioned decision, the AED has adopted a statement.

In particular, this decision decided on the legal issues raised that a) the AED is competent to eliminate a fatal conflict of powers in any case where a final decision arises, regardless of whether that decision comes from the final judicial decisions or advice, since a different interpretation was contrary to to the right to judicial protection set out in Articles 20 of the Constitution and 6 of the ECHR, and b) that executive decisions relating to the enforcement of judgments are reviewed by courts of competent jurisdiction, in this case the criminal courts and, in particular, the Misdemeanors Board as court for the execution of sentences.

And with these decisions, he referred the case to the Lamia Penitentiary Court, as the local authority for Domokos Prisons, charged with adjudicating the legality of a) the decision of the General Secretary for Political Affairs, which ordered the transfer of Dim Koufontin to Domoko, b) the physical act of transfer itself, c) Rejection of a prisoner’s request to be transferred to Korydallos Prisons.

This decision is the justification of Dimitris Koufontinas, as well as the long legal battle that was fought in defense of the case, provoking unfounded attacks from both the media and representatives of the executive branch involved in the destruction of the Rule of Law, and only with the aim of worsening living conditions specific prisoner.

Source: RES-IPE