A top opposition deputy this week demanded that the government release figures related to convicts released under the controversial “Paraskevopoulos law”, named for the former justice minister who spearheaded the legislation.
The tabled question by MP Nikitas Kaklamanis, the former mayor of Athens, comes in light of recent press reports claiming that inmates released under the law’s lenient conditions are responsible for a spate of particularly violent crimes.
When tabled by the leftist-rightist coalition government the early release provisions in the relevant law were billed by proponents as measures to ease prison overcrowding and to help rehabilitate felons.
Kaklamanis, a radiologist and hospital administrator by training, referred to a “large number of felons, even ones (convicted) for violent crimes, which is a primary reason in a spike in crime.”
