Alexandros Giotopoulos ( el, Αλέξανδρος Γιωτόπουλος; born 1944 in Paris) is a convicted terrorist, currently serving seventeen

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

sentences plus 25 years imprisonment. He was found guilty in 2003 of leading the Marxist-Leninist

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

urban guerrilla group

Revolutionary Organization 17 November Revolutionary Organization 17 November ( el, Επαναστατική Οργάνωση 17 Νοέμβρη, ''Epanastatiki Organosi dekaefta Noemvri''), also known as 17N or the 17 November Group, was a Greek far-left Marxist–Leninist urban ...

(17N).

Biography

Giotopoulos was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in 1944, the son of Dimitris Giotopoulos. He was raised in

Chalandri Chalandri ( el, Χαλάνδρι, Ancient Greek: Φλύα, ''Phlya'') is a suburb in the northern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. It is a municipality of the Attica region. Geography Chalandri is a suburb in Northern Athens, around fr ...

and in 1962 he returned to Paris where he studied

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...

. Several decades later, from inside the prison, he continued his studies with a Master in Theoretical Mathematics and later he earned a PhD degree from the University of Paris. He was part of the

United Democratic Left The United Democratic Left (, ''Eniéa Dimokratikí Aristerá'' (EDA)) was a left-wing political party in Greece, active mostly before the Greek military junta of 1967–74. Foundation The party was founded in July 1951 by prominent center-left ...

, and later, an opponent of the

Greek military junta of 1967-1974 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

. On 29th of August 1972 he participated in the bombing of the US embassy in Greece.

Revolutionary Organization 17 November

17N was responsible for a series of armed robberies, bombings, and assassinations of prominent Greek and foreign politicians, journalists, diplomats, and businessmen that left twenty-three people dead. Giotopoulos was identified as its leader after the arrest and confession of Savvas Xiros, another member of 17N, following a failed bombing attempt on a

hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains sp ...

shipping company in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saronic ...

. Giotopoulos appealed his conviction, and described himself as the victim of "an Anglo-American conspiracy". At the start of his appeal, in 2005, he received support from left-wing organisations and personalities in France, where he was born, including

Alain Krivine Alain Krivine (; 10 July 1941 – 12 March 2022) was a French Trotskyist leader. Early life Krivine was born in July 1941 in Paris, France, the child of Pierre Léon Georges Krivine, a stomatologist, and Esther Lautman, the sister of French ...

and

Pierre Vidal-Naquet Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet (; 23 July 1930 – 29 July 2006) was a French historian who began teaching at the ''École des hautes études en sciences sociales'' (EHESS) in 1969. Vidal-Naquet was a specialist in the study of Ancient Greece, but ...

. However, on May 3, 2007, his conviction and those of his 17N accomplices were sustained by the court of appeals.''Le démantèlement du 17-N n’a pas mis fin au terrorisme en Grèce - Le Monde article - May 6, 2007

References

Giotopoulos, Alexandros Giotopoulos, Alexandros Greek prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Criminals from Paris Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Greece Stalinism Anti-revisionists Greek communists Terrorism in Greece Communist terrorism Resistance to the Greek junta {{Greece-bio-stub