26/2/2025
Once again, for the sixth time in a row, the Lamia Misdemeanors Council has honored me with its decision to reject my request for conditional release on the grounds that I have not been “rehabilitated” and have not shown “moral improvement”!
Indeed, a committed fighter, a revolutionary, an anarchist like myself could never be “rehabilitated” or “morally improved” by prison, no matter how many years they remain incarcerated.
A committed fighter, a revolutionary, an anarchist can dedicate their life to the struggle, as did comrade Lambros Foundas of Revolutionary Struggle; they can risk their life for the cause, face the threat of being killed by the state’s praetorians —just as I almost was; they can spend many years in prison —I have already served 12 years for Revolutionary Struggle and another 4 in the past—but they must never take a step back, express repentance or revision, or, in other words, demonstrate “rehabilitation” and “moral improvement,” as the judicial council puts it.
From this perspective, all the decisions of the judicial councils—six from the Misdemeanors Council and one from the Court of Appeals— honor me and show me that I am on the right path. If I were to say the opposite, I would begin to wonder whether I had made a mistake and violated my ethical principles and values. My only objection is the council’s reference to my “pretextual” good behavior. This is truly unfair to me. If such a thing were true, then during the council hearings, entirely “pretextually,” contrary to everything I believe in, everything I have been convicted for, and all the disciplinary violations I have committed, I would have mumbled apologies and expressions of remorse—just as most criminal inmates do to secure their release. However, such a thing is unthinkable for me.
The latest rejection from the Lamia Misdemeanors Council effectively excludes me from the possibility of conditional release, even though I have already served more than four-fifths of my sentence.
In the broader context of recent years’ tightening of penal and “correctional” legislation—which has included increased sentence limits, stricter conditions for conditional release and furloughs, and the effective abolition of these rights, along with the establishment of maximum-security prisons (similar to the old Type C prisons, but worse)— I may well become the first person sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment who will serve the full sentence, all five-fifths, without suspension, effectively approaching the duration of a life sentence, which under the old penal code meant serving 16 years.
“No revision” – No repentance!
Nikos Maziotis,
convicted for the Revolutionary Struggle
4th wing Domokos prison
Received by email