Greek Hitman On Hunger Strike Suffers Kidney Failure

A far-left Greek hitman on a hunger strike for nearly two months demanding to be transferred to another prison is suffering from acute kidney failure, the hospital treating him said Friday

Athens (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 6th Mar, 2021 ) :A far-left Greek hitman on a hunger strike for nearly two months demanding to be transferred to another prison is suffering from acute kidney failure, the hospital treating him said Friday.

The hospital said staff had taken "all necessary measures" to try to prevent such a development, short of force-feeding, which a Greek doctors' union has said would be considered torture.

Dimitris Koufodinas, 63, is serving multiple life sentences for 11 murders and started his hunger strike on January 7.

Late Friday, his lawyer, Ioanna Kurtovic, told Greek media that her client had agreed to receive a liquid serum intravenously at the request of two family doctors.

Koufodinas is seeking a transfer from a prison in Lamia in central Greece to another high-security jail in Athens to be near his family.

He was sent to a hospital in Lamia in late January due to his deteriorating health and has been in a critical condition for the last two weeks.

On Thursday, a court denied his request to suspend his sentence, ruling that his worsening was not due to an illness, but to his decision to go on a hunger strike.

On Friday, police fired watercannon and tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters at Athens' central Syntagma square, citing restrictions in place to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Protests have regularly been held in solidarity with Koufodinas over the past couple weeks.

Koufodinas, formerly the top assassin for the defunct November 17 far-left group, has been imprisoned for 18 years.

The 11 victims between 1980 and 2000 included Pavlos Bakoyannis, a lawmaker who was the father of Athens Mayor Costas Bakoyannis and brother-in-law to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.