With prison terms from 4.5 years to 5 years and 7 months the 11 defendants were punishedmembers of the self-styled group “Guardians of the Constitution”who in December 2021 “arrested” a high school teacher in Aeginio Pieria and took him handcuffed to a police station, because they disagreed with the measures he was implementing at the school to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Accepting the prosecution’s proposal, the Three-Judge Court of Criminal Appeals found them guilty of illegal detention jointly (misdemeanor), upon conversion of the indictment from robbery (felony), as well as for the misdemeanors of disrupting the operation of a public service and violating the measures for avoiding the transmission of infectious diseases.

Also, two of them were additionally found guilty of minor bodily harm and one accused of breach of personal data (due to video recording, with a mobile phone, of the act).

2 out of 3 temporary prisoners are released

The vast majority of them received the mitigation of common-law life, while it was decided that their appeal would have a suspensory effect. The decision keeps two of the three out of prison temporary detainees. The convicted defendant remains in custody with the sentence of 5 years and 7 months because he is serving a sentence for another case (the only one who did not get a leniency).

Their guilt had also been requested by the district attorney who – among other things – in his proposal stated that “in addition to being graphic, they are also dangerous”. The high school senior suffered “humiliation”, he was “hostage” in the car, as he was “under the arbitrary power of the accused”, the prosecutor said, speaking of “paranoia” and “grotesqueness”.

The defendants in their apologies had accepted that they were present at the incident but denied the actions attributed to them, giving their own version of the reason for their presence at the school.