ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The head of a far-left Greek militant group that killed 23 people — among them industrialists, diplomats and a CIA station chief — has been released from a maximum-security prison, officials said Friday. The decision is now being reexamined by a senior prosecutor.
Alexandros Giotopoulos, the 82-year-old convicted leader of the armed group November 17, was released Thursday from a prison in Athens.
A judicial panel approved his conditional release on grounds of advanced age, deteriorating health and good behavior during his incarceration.
But the decision has triggered renewed scrutiny. A prosecutor at Greece’s Supreme Court is reviewing the ruling and could seek to challenge it.
November 17 evaded authorities for more than 25 years while carrying out bombings, assassinations and bank robberies. The group’s first recorded attack was the 1975 fatal shooting in Athens of Richard Welch, the CIA station chief in Greece.
The organization’s strict secrecy unraveled after a botched bombing in 2002 left one member seriously injured, leading investigators to uncover the group’s operations and membership.
Giotopoulos, who was born in Paris and lived for years under an assumed identity, was serving 17 life sentences plus 25 years. He was convicted in 2003, with the verdict upheld on appeal in 2007, for orchestrating multiple murders, bombings and robberies, as well as participation in a criminal organization.
He has denied all charges, insisting that co-defendants were pressured by authorities into making false accusations against him in exchange for reduced sentences.
Authorities considering his release noted that Giotopoulos completed university correspondence courses while in prison and complied with the terms of furloughs granted to him in recent years.
November 17 was named after the day in 1973 when a student uprising against the military dictatorship that ruled Greece at the time was crushed in a bloody crackdown by the police and army that caused multiple deaths.
The group has claimed responsibility for attacks targeting industrialists, diplomats and senior judges, including the killings of two Turkish Embassy staff members and Stephen Saunders, the British defense attache in Athens, in 2000.
Three of the 15 original November 17 members convicted in the case remain in prison.
Kantouris reported from Thessaloniki, Greece
FILE- Convicted leader of the armed group November 17, Alexandros Giotopoulos speaks to reporters, at a special court in a top-security Athens jail, on Dec. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
An advocacy group has filed suit against the Trump administration over its decision to reinstate a near-ban on abortions for veterans and their family members who depend on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for healthcare.
The federal lawsuit filed Thursday says the rule finalized by the VA on Dec. 31 takes away limited abortion access that was “crucial for the health, autonomy, and equality of veterans and their family members.”
Attorneys for the group Minority Veterans of America want the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to throw out the rule. They say the VA adopted the change without citing medical evidence or other justifications, violating the Administrative Procedures Act that governs federal rulemaking.
The VA did not include abortion in its coverage until 2022. President Joe Biden’s administration added it months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and states' abortion bans began taking effect.
Abortion access the VA provided under Biden was limited, applying only in cases when a pregnant woman’s life or health was at risk, or in cases of rape or incest.
The Biden change allowed the VA to provide abortion even in states where it was banned. And it brought the VA’s coverage into line with other federal healthcare plans — including Medicaid and TriCare coverage for active military members and their families — that allowed limited abortion access.
The VA announced its proposal to undo those changes last August, a few months after President Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The VA had said it will still provide abortions in cases where a pregnant woman's life is threatened. That's something state laws allow, even in places where bans are in place.
However, the VA no longer allows exceptions for abortions in cases of rape, incest or to protect a pregnant woman's health. Abortion counseling is also no longer allowed.
A VA spokesperson declined to comment, noting the agency typically doesn't comment on pending litigation.
Minority Veterans of America says it represents more than 3,600 members across the U.S.
“Our community includes veterans with complex medical histories, those who have experienced pregnancy complications, and survivors of sexual violence and trauma, all of whom need access to abortion care and counseling to protect their health," Lindsay Church, the group's executive director, said in a statement.
In publishing its final rule in December, the VA said it was restoring the agency's longstanding position that abortions were not “needed” under federal law and that “this determination did not prohibit providing life-saving care to pregnant veterans.”
The lawsuit says one of Minority Veteran of America's members is a military veteran who just learned she was pregnant in early May. She suffers from chronic pain that has been exacerbated by the pregnancy, placing her health “at substantial risk,” says the lawsuit, which withheld the woman's name to protect her privacy.
The lawsuit says the VA won't allow the unnamed veteran to receive an abortion “even if her health is at risk, unless a provider determines an abortion is necessary to save her life.”
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
FILE - Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court during the March for Life in Washington, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
