Convicted terrorist Savvas Xiros explained on Thursday that he refuses to wear an ankle monitor – a prerequisite to get out of prison – due to … religious reasons!

The ultra-Marxist “November 17” assassin convicted of multiple felonies, including the Biblically proscribed sin of murder (οὐ φονεύσεις), points to the Book of Revelations as the basis for his refusal. Xiros, 56, appears as a likely beneficiary of a controversial new law passed this month allowing the conditional release of inmates with severe health problems or disabilities.

“Conditional” means home remand, in this case, in tandem with an ankle monitor. “I intend to not accept it (monitor), without wanting to say anything more about the new law. The new law was passed with difficulty, and the government appeared to show determination and toughness,” he said in a jailhouse interview.   

The prospect of Xiros exchanging a prison cell for his home has angered Washington and created an unforeseen glitch in otherwise affable Greek-US relations. “N17” was responsible for the murder of 23 people, including five US diplomats and military personnel stationed in Greece.

The British envoy also criticized the law, as one of the victims was the British military attaché in Athens.

“The first and primary reason is my religious beliefs; essentially what is described in the Book of Revelation as a means by which someone cannot partake in a social life, and which is tending to be imposed on more and more social groups. “… this system (ankle monitor) will be tested on an inmate, in the pilot phase; an experiment under real life conditions. Now it must be expanded to sensitive areas, such as to those people working in airports, as it was done in 2004 with biometric data in airports, which have today been expanded to banks and other (sectors),” Xiros, practically blind and incarcerated since 2002, said.

Beyond the … Apocalypse and the spectre of an Orwellian future, the convicted urban terrorist said wearing an ankle monitor will prevent him from undergoing medical diagnostic procedures, such as cardiographs, MRIs etc.

Xiros was severely injured while placing a bomb that exploded prematurely at the port of Piraeus in June 2002.