In 1985, he was included in the list of “usual suspects” for all the terrorist acts of the time: a bloody supermarket robbery, the assassination of prosecutor Theofanopoulos by the then emerging Anti-Catholic Struggle, and the clash in Gyzi that resulted in the death of three police officers and the anti-authoritarian member of the Anti-Catholic Struggle Christos Tsoutsoubis. He is charged in all three cases.
His persecution by the authorities that followed, also under pressure from the US, made history.
He decides to go abroad. In total, he remained a fugitive for 17 years.
The reason for Avraam (Makis) Lesperoglou, who died today at Sparta Hospital, of a heart attack, as announced by lawyer Yiannis Rahiotis in his post.
In fact, Rahiotis complains that, as there was no cardiologist at the Sparta hospital, he was not given a coronary angiogram, which would probably have saved his life.
The post Rachiotis
Lesperoglou’s life and condition
Lesperoglou was born in 1955 and developed intense anti-dictatorship activity in Athens, while post-colonization he developed a strong relationship with Palestinian activists.
It all began on October 24, 1982, when an attempt was made to break into a dental laboratory in Exarchia, resulting in the injury of a police officer. A Palestinian and a Greek, people close to Avraham Lesperoglou, were arrested, while in the following days they were pursued by the judicial authorities.
He knew that a third Palestinian was involved in the case, whom he did not want to identify for reasons of principle. To prove his innocence, he decided to resort to the fugitive justice system so as not to endanger the Palestinian movement in general.
In 1985, the trials for the Theofanopoulos, Sklavenitis and Gyzi cases followed.
“After the incredible accusations that were made against me in 1985, I had no room to return. That’s why I chose the path of self-exile,” he says in an interview with Eleftherotypia. He leaves Greece and goes abroad where “with persistence and a lot of effort I managed to create a more permanent residence, a more stable job and social environment…”.
He returned to Greece 14 years later when his mother’s health deteriorated and she was arrested at Ellinikos airport. He was sentenced to 3.5 years suspended for illegal entry into the country, but also by the Roof military court for insubordination and finally sent to the Korydallos prisons.
In October 2001, he was convicted of the attempted murder of the Exarchia police officer in 1982, without acknowledging mitigating circumstances. In March of the same year, the second instance trial took place at the Athens Mixed Jury Court of Appeal. Lesperoglou was found not guilty by a vote of 4-3 (all four jurors found him not guilty). Here are a series of exculpatory or favorable decisions:
In November 2001 he was released after about two years in detention.