Greek junta trials

These trials involved the instigators of the 21 April coup d'état, as well as other junta members of various ranks who took part in the events of the Athens Polytechnic uprising and in the torture of citizens.

The military coup leaders were formally arrested during the metapolitefsi period that followed the junta, and in early August 1975 the government of Konstantinos Karamanlis brought charges of high treason and insurrection against Georgios Papadopoulos and other co-conspirators.

[1][2] The principal leaders of the 1967 coup, Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos and Nikolaos Makarezos, were sentenced to death for high treason, following the trial.

He declared that as soon as the parliament was convened after the 1974 elections, he would propose legislation to annul any automatic immunity laws which the junta might have enacted to protect its members.

[8] Karamanlis' government responded to these demands and ordered the junta principals Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos, Nikolaos Makarezos, Ioannis Ladas and Michael Roufogalis arrested.

[7] In addition, Georgios Papadopoulos, Dimitrios Ioannidis, Michael Roufogalis, Nikolaos Dertilis, Vassilios Bouklakos and Elias Tsiaouris (alternatively Tsapouris or Tsiaparas), who were also responsible of the Polytechnic events, were prohibited from leaving the country, as rumours were circulating that they were planning to escape abroad.

[7] On 24 October 1974, Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos, Nikolaos Makarezos, Ioannis Ladas and Michael Roufogalis were arrested and charged with conspiring again.

[7][6] Immediately after the group of five was exiled to Kea, the opposition demanded to know the details of the actions of Papadopoulos and his co-conspirators prior to their arrest, while the government denied rumours of pro-junta manoeuvres among the military.

[9] However, following a three-month stay on the island, in February 1975, Papadopoulos and the other four junta principals were transported by a torpedo boat to the port of Piraeus on their way to Korydallos prison.

[9][10] On 28 July 1975, the trial of the instigators of the coup (Greek: Η Δίκη των Πρωταιτίων) commenced with Ioannis Deyannis as the presiding judge.

[13][1] The mandate of the trial was to examine the events surrounding the 21 April 1967 coup, for which Papadopoulos and over twenty other co-defendants were charged with acts of high treason and mutiny.

[1] The defence announced that the reason their clients were not participating was that the Karamanlis government had prejudiced the outcome of the trial by declaring the 1967 coup a criminal offense.

[1] The lawyers of sixteen of the defendants walked out of the courtroom on the first day of the proceedings,[15] declaring that they could not carry out their duties under a climate of terror and violence, to which the presiding judge Ioannis Deyannis replied: "Let all those who wish to leave—leave!".

[1] Although there was an agreement among the defendants that they would keep silent during the trial and would not issue any statements, Papadopoulos broke his silence and declared to the court: "I am the leader of the Revolution, and I am responsible for everything".

[15] Pattakos, Makarezos and the rest of the junta members were surprised to hear Papadopoulos' statement because they believed they had an agreement that they would not politicize the trial based on their belief that they had nothing to gain.

[15] The charge of mutiny was contested because even though the colonels had in fact seized power illegally, they did so with the approval of their superior officer Lieutenant General Grigorios Spandidakis, who even joined the coup.

"[17] Panagiotis Kanellopoulos, the last legitimate prime minister of Greece prior to the coup, acting as witness for the prosecution, testified how he was arrested by soldiers with machine-guns and transported to the palace to meet King Constantine.

[27] Pattakos also mentioned that he knew very well that in the afternoon of 24 November 1973 Ioannidis had been called by Papadopoulos himself and, with Makarezos present, he again vehemently denied any rumours about planning a coup.

Pattakos added that a few hours after that meeting, around 3:30 a.m. the next day, the tanks appeared in the streets of Athens and Phaedon Gizikis was sworn in early that morning as figurehead president of the republic.

Once the proceedings resumed the Court announced it found Papadopoulos was not immune from prosecution, as president of the republic at the time of the events, because the 21 April 1967 coup initiated violence against the Greek State and usurped the power and legal authority of the people.

[26] The full, unanimous, decision of the Court, rejecting Papadopoulos' motion for immunity, stated the following:[26] The mutinous movement of 21 April 1967, the action of a group of officers and the resulting situation until 23 July [1974] constituted a coup d'état, through which it was intended to usurp the authority and the sovereign rights of the people.

His rationale was that these convictions would encourage the newly legalised Communist Party to threaten EAT/ESA men with punishment in cases where soldiers executed legally dubious orders.

In a case involving Air Force officer Nikolaos Stapas, Kofas prescribed orange juice for hematuria caused by severe torture.

Modestly reserving to themselves infallibility of judgement, they have tried to follow in the footsteps of the Holy Inquisition.Sentencing table for the two ESA trials:[11] In prison the junta principals addressed each other using their former titles such as "Minister" and "President" and showed great deference to Papadopoulos.

[40] A plan to grant amnesty to the junta principals by the Konstantinos Mitsotakis government in 1990 was cancelled after protests from conservatives, socialists and communists alike.

[40][44] The two things he mentions in his writings that he did not like was the noise pollution at the jail, which he describes as "torture", and that the shape of the pond and faucet combination looked like a hammer and sickle.

[44] In another segment of his prison memoirs, Pattakos also mentions an incident involving General Odysseas Angelis (the Chief of the Armed Forces under much of the junta), and a jail guard.

[6][54] According to the books The Politics of Human Rights: The Quest for Dignity and Transitional Justice: How Emerging Democracies Reckon With Former Regimes : Country Studies: [T]he trials, which received widespread radio, television, and press coverage, served to demystify the dictatorship.

The trials made possible the exposure of seven years of maladministration, repression, scandal, corruption, and conspiracies and depicted a regime much worse than even the military had imagined.

If we add to this their responsibility for the Cyprus tragedy, we can understand the dissillusionment of the officer corps with the military as politicians and its desire to separate itself from the regime of the phoenix and the bayonet.