The US government did not hide their anger about the two-day leave granted to the sentenced terrorist, Dimitris Koufontina, by the Greek judicial system.
The US Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt protested to the Greek government. The official Greek response was that the government has nothing to do with this as they are not allowed to interfere with the work of the Greek justice.
The official US announcement was made by the State Department spokeswoman Mrs. Nauert, who read it to journalists yesterday before everything else.
The statement is:
I ‘d like to start out with some news that has come out of Greece today. I ‘d like to say that we want to condemn the release of a convicted terrorist. His name is Dimitrios Koufodinas. He was released on a two-day furlough from a Greek prison, he is a convicted terrorist, he is responsible for killing 11 civilians, some British, US and also Turkish embassy staff, who worked for the United States obviously, UK and Turkey. They released him on a two-day furlough, they did that just three months ago as well. We fundamentally believe that convicted terrorists do not deserve a vacation from prison. Our embassy in Athens has conveyed our serious concerns about the decision to the Greek government.
.@statedeptspox: We condemn the release of Dimitris Koufodinas, a convicted terrorist responsible for killing 11 civilians. We fundamentally believe that convicted terrorists do not deserve a vacation from prison. @USEmbassyAthens has conveyed our concerns to #Greece’s government pic.twitter.com/5C3S4jebPJ
— Department of State (@StateDept) February 8, 2018
