HUSBAND IN PRISON

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30332, 7 January 1964, Page 2

HUSBAND IN PRISON

Wife’s Fight For Release

If anyone ever writes a history of wives, a whole chapter will surely be devoted to Mrs Betty Ambateilos, writes Susan Vaughan, from London. She is the woman who for 16 years has fought with remarkable courage to obtain the release of her husband, held by the Greeks as a political prisoner Lately, either as a result of her efforts or of a change of government in Greece. Mrs Ambateilos has been encouraged to believe that her husband will soon be freed. Recently she visited her husband and they were a \ owed to kiss for the first time in 16 years. Mrs Ambateilos is 46. She was born Betty Bartlett, the daughter of a Welsh mining engineer. She met her husband, Tony, in 1942 in Cardiff. They had a short and happy courtship. He was a seaman, a handsome fellow in those days, baby-faced and wavy-haired. “And now he's nearly 50.” says Mrs Ambateilos, “and of course he’s ageing fast in prison. No exercise, prison diet.” How was it he came to be in prison? The couple were living in Piraeus, that hot, bright port made famous by the film “Never On Sunday.” They lived in one room, but they were happy.

Then, on Christmas Eve, 1957. Tony, a Communist, was arrested and sentenced to death for sedition. The death sentence was postponed and later changed to life imprisonment.

Mrs Ambateilos has been passing the years teaching in London and campaigning incessantly for her husband's release. “Believe me." she says. “I found all the protesting a great embarrassment. I am not a hard-faced woman. There were times when I wished I was. I had to screw myself up." This is from the organiser of demonstrations and petitions, the harrier of the Greek Government and me Greek Royal Family.— (All Rights Reserved).