Savvas Xiros was a member of the Greek group November 17, which was responsible for 23 killings between 1975 and 2000. He was a painter of religious icons, aged 40 in 2002. In December 2003 a special three-judge court in Athens convicted him with other members of the group, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Later accounts give his total as five life sentences plus 25 years. He remains in prison in Greece, and his applications for early release on health grounds were refused in 2014 and again in December 2018.
On June 29, 2002 Xiros was seriously injured in an incident at the port of Piraeus. It brought him into the hands of the police and led to the arrests that ended the group's activity.
The group took its name from the date of a 1973 student uprising against the military government in Athens. Between 1975 and 2000 it killed 23 people. Its first four killings, beginning with that of Richard Welch in 1975, fell outside Greece's 20-year limitation period by the time of the 2003 trial, and nobody was convicted for them. Its last killing was that of Stephen Saunders, 52, from Dorset, in Athens on June 8, 2000.
Xiros was 40 when he was injured in Piraeus on June 29, 2002. In July 2002 Christodoulos Xiros and Vassilis Xiros were formally charged, together with a third man, as members of the group. Prosecutors charged them with dozens of offenses including murder, attempted murder, robbery and membership of an outlawed group. In court Savvas Xiros later described the killing of Stephen Saunders on June 8, 2000.
The trial of 19 defendants opened in Athens in March 2003. It was Greece's first terrorism trial and was held without a jury before three judges. It ran for nine months. Savvas Xiros was among those charged with the murder of Stephen Saunders.
On December 8, 2003 the court found 15 of the 19 defendants guilty. Four were acquitted for lack of evidence. The charges ranged from murder to further offenses, and the offenses dated from December 1975 to June 2000. The court convicted Savvas Xiros of membership of a terrorist group and participation in its criminal activities. Sentencing followed on December 17, 2003. Alexandros Giotopoulos, whom the court treated as the group's leader, received 21 life terms. Dimitris Koufodinas received 13 life terms. Four other core members received between one and ten life terms each, and the remaining 13 convicted men received lesser sentences. Xiros was sentenced to life imprisonment.
His sentences also covered two further killings, in 1988 and 1991, among others.
He first refused to appeal, then changed his mind. The appeal trial opened on December 2, 2005 before a special five-judge court in Athens, which was expected to sit for about nine months. The Athens Court of Appeals announced a ruling for other members of the group in May 2007. The outcome of the appeal for Xiros himself is not on record.
In 2010 the European Court of Human Rights found violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in his case, concerning care in detention and the lack of an effective remedy. The judgment of September 9, 2010 became final on February 21, 2011,.
In October 2014 the courts at Piraeus rejected his application to serve his sentence at home on health grounds. In April 2015 a government bill would have allowed a prisoner in his position to serve the remainder of a sentence at home under electronic monitoring; it drew opposition at home and abroad. On October 18, 2018 his lawyer applied for early release, again on health grounds. On December 10, 2018 a council of appeals judges in Piraeus refused the request.
Greece applied a 20-year limitation period, so the group's first four killings, from 1975, could not be prosecuted at the 2003 trial. Murder carried life imprisonment, and a person convicted of it could be held for at least 20 years.
The exact counts on which he was convicted have not been set out, and his total is given as five life terms with a further 25 years in later accounts but as six life terms in 2005.
1975: November 17 begins its killings.
June 8, 2000: Stephen Saunders is killed in Athens, the group's last killing.
June 29, 2002: Savvas Xiros is seriously injured in Piraeus.
July 2002: other members are charged.
March 2003: trial of 19 defendants opens in Athens.
December 8, 2003: 15 of 19 defendants convicted, 4 acquitted.
December 17, 2003: sentences passed; Xiros receives life imprisonment.
December 2, 2005: appeal trial opens in Athens.
May 9, 2007: Athens Court of Appeals announces a ruling for other members.
September 9, 2010: European Court of Human Rights judgment in his case.
October 2014: Piraeus courts reject his home-detention application.
December 2018: Piraeus council of appeals judges refuse his early-release request.