Alexandros Giotopoulos
Encyclopedia
Alexandros Giotopoulos is serving a sentence of life imprisonment, having been found guilty in 2003 of leading the Marxist
Greek
terrorist group November 17th
(17N).
17N was responsible for several murders of prominent Greek and foreign politicians, journalists, diplomats and businessmen. Giotopoulos was identified as its leader after the apprehension and confession of Savvas Xiros, another member of 17N, following a failed bombing attempt on a Flying Dolphin company in Piraeus
.
Giotopoulos denied the charges against him, 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,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3300129.stm including Alain Krivine
and Pierre Vidal-Naquet
. However, on May 3, 2007, his conviction and those of his 17N accomplices were sustained by the court of appeals.
Alexandros Giotopoulos was a prominent opponent of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974
. He is the son of Demetris Giotopoulos, once a secretary of Leon Trotsky
, also known as Witte, who was a leader of the Greek Trotskyist party of archeiomarxists.
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
terrorist group November 17th
Revolutionary Organization 17 November
Revolutionary Organization 17 November , was a Marxist urban guerrilla organization formed in 1975 and believed to have been disbanded in 2002 after the arrest and trial of a...
(17N).
17N was responsible for several murders of prominent Greek and foreign politicians, journalists, diplomats and businessmen. Giotopoulos was identified as its leader after the apprehension and confession of Savvas Xiros, another member of 17N, following a failed bombing attempt on a Flying Dolphin company in Piraeus
Piraeus
Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....
.
Giotopoulos denied the charges against him, 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,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3300129.stm including Alain Krivine
Alain Krivine
Alain Krivine is a leader of the Trotskyist movement in France. He is a member of the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire , which is the French section of the reunified Fourth International. He was a member of the LCR's political bureau until March 2006, when he resigned from that committee...
and Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Pierre Vidal-Naquet
Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales in 1969....
. However, on May 3, 2007, his conviction and those of his 17N accomplices were sustained by the court of appeals.
Alexandros Giotopoulos was a prominent opponent of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974
Greek military junta of 1967-1974
The Greek military junta of 1967–1974, alternatively "The Regime of the Colonels" , or in Greece "The Junta", and "The Seven Years" are terms used to refer to a series of right-wing military governments that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974...
. He is the son of Demetris Giotopoulos, once a secretary of Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
, also known as Witte, who was a leader of the Greek Trotskyist party of archeiomarxists.