[2] He wrote an autobiography entitled A Normal Life, published in November 2021 by Freedom Press.
[3] Having been sentenced to 197 years plus 376 months imprisonment for various offences, he was released from incarceration due to poor health and began serving the rest of his sentence under house arrest, having spent 16 years behind bars in Patras state pentitentiary.
[11] He and his cellmate Alket Rizai, 34, climbed a rope ladder thrown to them by a female passenger in the helicopter as it flew over the prison courtyard.
He told police the helicopter was chartered by a couple who said they wanted to go from the town of Itea in central Greece to Athens.
According to the pilot, who claimed to have been forced into taking part in the escape, Palaiokostas and Rizai were delivered to a getaway car.