The release after 12.5 years of a man sentenced to 401 years in prison has rekindled controversy about the actual length of the sentence. This was also the reason for the intervention of the prosecutor of the Supreme Court. Isidoros Dogiakouwho yesterday requested the decision-will of the Nafplion Board of Appeal, according to which the prisoner was released under restrictive conditions from Tripoli prisons. Accredited lawyers explain the “K” what is applied in Greece and what is the “ceiling” of years of imprisonment.

Arithmetic that opens the prison door

Iliana Magra

This has happened many times. Citizen sentenced to for lifebut after a few years getting out of jail. Another is sentenced to hundreds of years in prison, but is released from prison again a few years later. Non-lawyers are usually perplexed as to what is happening and why.

The question of the length of sentences has returned to the news since yesterday, when he was released from prison for the second time. Nikos Seiragakiswho was sentenced to 401 years in prison for indecency with 36 minors, up from 220 after the merger, in 2011. In April 2020, he was released on parole.

But a few days later he violated one of them – he was obliged to circulate in the municipality of Kalamaria in Thessaloniki, but was seen in Menemeni – as a result of which he was arrested and returned to prison.

Almost three years later, after serving 12.5 years of his sentence, 59-year-old Nikos Seiragakis is released from prison again. His conditional dismissal reportedly covers the following: not to reside or visit Crete, appear twice a month at a police station, reside in a designated area of ​​Attica, not associate with minors without the presence or consent of persons under guardianship, and attend seances psychiatrist once a month.

There is a ceiling

But how do we go from 401 to 12.5? Professor in Forensic Science, Athens School of Law Elias Anagnostopoulos explains that in Greece there is a “ceiling” of years of imprisonment, which for cases of temporary imprisonment is 20 years. The reason a sentence can reach, as in this case, hundreds of years is because a person is convicted for each crime he commits, or for each person against whom he has committed a crime, separately, and then the sentences are added together. “But no matter how many years the sentences reach, the upper limit is 20 or 25 years in the case of multiple life sentences,” says Mr. Anagostopoulos.

3/5 and per diems

Regardless of the number of years sentences reach, the upper limit is 20 years, or 25 years in the case of multiple life sentences. And this is where the contractions begin.

In particular, in cases of temporary imprisonment, with good behavior of the prisoner, 3/5 of the term of punishment is required with the following difference: “2/5 of the term of punishment is the actual detention, and 1/5 of the term of punishment is benefit”. days of work. Thus, the actual construction of the maximum 20-year sentence is 2/5 of 20 years of imprisonment, while 1/5 of the total sentence is served at work in places of deprivation of liberty. Konstantinos Kosmatos explains “K”., Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Thracian University. If a prisoner does not want to work or has no opportunity to work, 3/5 of the 20-year sentence will have to serve the actual prison term – thus, he will have to spend 12 years in prison instead of 8 years. in custody, along with prison work, he adds.

After that, any convicted person released on parole, in fact, continues to serve his sentence outside the prison. “Parole is an institution of semi-liberal life, an alternative way to serve a sentence,” Mr. Kosmatos notes in “K”..

“If you violate the conditions of release and commit a crime, parole is canceled,” the message says. Dimitris Anastasopoulos, a lawyer specializing in criminal law. He understands why society is perplexed, how a person sentenced to hundreds of years can, under certain conditions, get out of prison. “This is what is provided for in the Criminal Code,” he emphasizes, emphasizing that even in the case of life imprisonment, sentences are not life sentences, since this would be tantamount to the “social death” of a person.

“The point is to punish the condemned, not to die in prison” Elias Anagnostopoulos reports to K., who is also President of the Association of Hellenic Criminalists. He emphasizes that the release case is pending before the judges – “shouldn’t they be trusted?

As if the judges do not think that they are accomplices of criminals and release them into society, ”he emphasizes, explaining that there is a system of supervision that follows the release from places of detention, preventing those released from committing new crimes. .

“Note that this is not a Greek original,” he says, recalling the “First Step Act” reform of the US prison system, which was supported by both Democrats and Republicans.

“They have admitted that their policy has failed and all they have been able to do is drastically increase the prison population and desocialize them,” says Mr. Anagostopoulos.

“The question is whether a person has ceased to be dangerous,” he states. “If it stopped being a risk” underline in “K”“well out.”

Dogiakos requested a rationale for the publication

Joanna Mandrow

The release of Nikos Seiragakis, who was released from prison after 12.5 years in prison while having heavy convictions for the sexual abuse of minors, prompted the intervention of Supreme Court Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos, who yesterday requested a ruling from the Supreme Court’s will. The Nafplion Board of Appeal, by which the prisoner was released under restrictive conditions from the Tripoli prisons where he was held. Nikos Seiragakis was found guilty of 36 sexual harassment of minors and sentenced to 401 years in prison (a theoretical sentence), which in practice was calculated as 25 years in prison, and he was often granted leave as a prisoner, using the relevant provisions of the law.

According to the sensational parole decision, they were imposed on him restraining orderfor example, not to communicate with minors, not to visit Crete, the place where he committed his crimes, not to leave the area of ​​Attica, which he declares his place of residence, to appear twice a month at the police station and be under the supervision of psychiatric specialists. However, in the past, when he was a prisoner in the Grevena prisons, from where he received one of the many permits as a prisoner, he did not comply with the prohibition conditions that were placed on him, since while he was supposed to reside only in the Kalamaria area, it was found in Menemeni. If the Supreme Court prosecutor’s investigation into his release reveals that he was erroneously released, the judges will be prosecuted, but if his release was lawful, then the main question of actually serving his sentence will again arise. , which, with amendments to the Criminal Code, tend to turn into paper, as the president of the Athens Bar Association, Dimitris Vervesos, said yesterday. As Mr. Vervezos mentioned, the changes in criminal law that were made in 2019 and later – in some of their provisions – are those that come with early release even for criminals for serious crimes, which, as he emphasized, must be addressed.