Parents of Terrorists Against Turning Domokos Jail Into Maximum security prison

HellasFrappe understands the pain and anguish that some parents might feel if and when they learn that their children are involved in terrorist activities, but pushing an appeal to not allow the transformation of a normal correctional facility into a high security penitentiary is overstepping the bounds. Where are terrorists supposed to be housed anyway? In minimal security prisons where we have witnessed extraordinary escapes occurring? Guess this is probably what these parents behind this story were were counting on!

According to news reports, the parents of a number of inmates and a prisoner who is convicted of murder apparently appealed to Greece’s Council of State recently, asking it to annul a decision by the Ministry of Justice which would transform the correctional facility of Domokos (located in central Greece), into a maximum security prison.

According to a report in the To Vima newspaper, the appeal was filed by the parents of some of the alleged members of terrorist group Conspiracy of Cells of Fire, together with the parents of some of the inmates involved in the double armed robbery in Velvendos that occurred many months ago near the northern town of Kozani, and by the man convicted for the murder of a 53-year-old taxi driver in Paros.

Prisoners who are going to be transported to Domokos correctional facility are set to initially remain there for a minimum of two years but the period might be extended to a number of years if they are considered to be particularly dangerous.

Parents claim that by turning the prison into a maximum security prison the presumption of innocence protected by the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is abolished. In their (surreal) opinion, the measure violates the constitutional principle of equality and proportionality, as well as the Penal Code which forbids the unfavourable discriminatory treatment of prisoners.

They claim that in maximum security prisons inmates do not receive leave of absence; the inmate does not receive a conditional dismissal if the individual hasn’t completed at least 20 years of his sentence; and only up to third-degree relatives are allowed to visit.

(Sounds like normal prison procedure for us, and something that we have been waiting for anxiously for years to be developed here in Greece so that these groups can disappear and stop spreading chaos and anarchy everywhere they go. These individuals, who the parents so lovingly call children, are  allegedly involved in terrorist organizations that include bombings, gunfire, and other illegal activities. What did they expect when their children were arrested? Did they expect the state and the people of Greece to allow them to stroll through Mykonos in the summertime and Glyfada during the winter and run around freely as if they did not have a care in the world? When you do the crime, you have to pay the time, and HellasFrappe is 100 percent in favor of such prisons because we believe they will end -to a large degree that is- such activity in this country)

The parents also say that the decision to transform the prison violates the European Convention on Human Rights since the change introduces a principle for tougher criminal treatment for a category of inmates. It also doesn’t protect the family institution.

(Is it therefore improper to say that some people in this country truly believe that this is a Banania Land? Or would that be too much?)