Athens: Polykarpos Georgiadis sentenced for allegedly violating his conditions of parole

In September 2013, antiauthoritarian communist Polykarpos Georgiadis was released on parole under specific conditions, such as the obligation to report to his nearest police department the first five days of each month, but he was never banned from leaving the country, so he should have been allowed to travel abroad for a short period of time.

Nevertheless, in the early morning of October 21st, 2014, cops arrested him at the Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos”, just before boarding an airplane along with another comrade to Brussels, where they would participate in a scheduled event of the International Red Aid. The “violation” of the imaginary prohibition on Polykarpos Georgiadis to exit Greece was the official reason for his arrest.

He was eventually released, but only after being brought to the Evelpidon courts in Athens, where he received a six-month sentence (wholly suspended) for allegedly violating the terms of his permanent residency. The prosecutor argued that a parolee, who has established a permanent residence, is under a quasi-house arrest. Of course, the presiding judge of the court did not hesitate to endorse this sort of argument and sentenced the comrade to six-month suspended prison term (which means that if an appellate court upholds the conviction, he will also be forced to serve a five-year term suspended in an earlier case).