Alexandros Giotopoulos (; born 1944) is a Greek convicted terrorist, currently serving seventeen

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

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

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

urban guerrilla group Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N).

Biography

Giotopoulos was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1944, the son of Dimitris Giotopoulos. He was raised in Chalandri and in 1962 he returned to Paris where he studied

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

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

. Several decades later, from inside the prison, he continued his studies with a Master's in Theoretical Mathematics and later he earned a PhD degree from the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

. He was part of the United Democratic Left, and later, an opponent of the

Greek military junta of 1967–1974 The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels was a right-wing military junta that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974. On 21 April 1967, a group of colonels with CIA backing overthrew the caretaker government a month before scheduled elections wh ...

. 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

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shipping company in

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) 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 Gulf in the Ath ...

. 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 193029 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 was als ...

. 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 Anti-revisionists Greek communists Terrorism in Greece Communist terrorism Resistance to the Greek junta {{Greece-bio-stub Anti-Turkish sentiment