Greece to Free 3 Leaders of Military Coup

Greece’s conservative government said today it will release three army officers who were sentenced to death before a firing squad for seizing power in 1967 and running a brutal military dictatorship for the next seven years.

Greek leftists and many others who suffered under the junta expressed shock and anger at the news.

The officers, notorious for torturing, jailing and exiling thousands of Greeks, had their sentences commuted to life in prison shortly after a special court ordered their executions in 1975.

They are George Papadopoulos, the colonel who masterminded the coup and appointed himself president, and his vice presidents, Brig. Gen. Stylianos Pattakos and Col. Nikolaos Makarezos.

Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, who formed the first conservative government since 1981 after April elections, told reporters he will recommend pardons and free the three men, as well as 10 others who were involved in the coup.

Mitsotakis himself was placed under house arrest under the junta. He eventually escaped and lived in self-imposed exile in Paris during the military dictatorship.

Only former Brig. Gen. Dimitrios Ioannides, who joined the coup and then ousted Papadopoulos from power in 1973, will stay in jail.