18,000 COMMUNIST PRISONERS HELD IN GREECE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22637, 14 May 1948, Page 5

18,000 COMMUNIST PRISONERS HELD IN GREECE

(From Robert Bigio, Reuters Correspondent) ATHENS (By Air Mail). Eighteen thousand Greek Communists and Communist sympathisers are in prison or in exile, according to official figures issued here by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Public Order (M. Christos Ladas who was recently assassinated).

Nearly 8000—the exact figure on March 1, was 7849—are serving prison sentences in gaols on the mainland, 4846 are in prison awaiting trial, and 5152 are civilian deportees who are living in exile on the rocky islands of the Aegean Sea. M. Ladas, in a state meat intended to correct misrepresentation abroad said that there are no political prisoners in Greece. He described the 8000 Communists or near-Commu-nist convicts now serving sentences of imprisonment in Greek gaols as criminals who had had a fair trial and were sentenced either under the Common Penal Law or by a Military Tribunal. Categories of Prisoners

Of the 8000, M. Ladas said 3538 are Communists and the remainder are either rebels or members of the Com-munist-dominated Left wing Coalition E.A.M., or its war-time military arm, the E.L.AS.M. In addition to these 8000 there are 2564 Communists and 2282 near-Communists in prison awaiting trial, he said. Prison authorities here have described as “Totally unfounded” a telegram of protest which has been sent oy some 2000 former ELAS inmates of the Aver off Prison in Athens to the French Socialist leader, M. Leon Blum, saying that they live in fear of murder by irresponsible elements among the Police Forces.

The prisoners in their cable referred to the recent murder of 25 Communist prisoners by a company of gendarmes who are said to have stormed the County Gaol in Sparta, in the Peloponnese, after one of their officers had been wounded on a rebel mine. The number of collaborators serving prison sentences is 1962, M. Ladas disclosed, with a further 233 alleged collaborators awaiting trial. Ordinary convicts total 3278, with 1471 more awaiting trial, bringing the total prison population in Greece at the beginning of March to 20,000. Double Pre-War Average M. Ladas explained that this total, although more than double the pre-war average of 9000 is not large if it is considered that Greece is “living in a state of undeclared war, in which there are countless victims every day”. The number of Communists and near-Communists who have been shot after trial by the extraordinary Military Tribunals set up in January, 1947 is believed, in well-informed British quarters here, to be about 1000, but no official statement has been made by the Ministry of War. These extraordinary Military Tribunals have powers to try all offences against the security of the State as defined by the far-reaching Emergency Regulations introduced 10 months agoDeath sentences carried out under the Provisions of Common Penal Law totalled 160 from the time of the liberation until March 23, according to M. Ladas. They included four war criminals. 25 collaborators, eleven Common Penal I,aw criminals, and 120 other criminals. In addition to the 18,000 Communists in orison or in exile some 9.000 to 10.000 other Communist susoects are being held on the Military Reformatory and Detention Island on Makronissos off the tip of the Attica Peninsula. They consist of men of military age who, on being called to the colours, were screened and because of their political convictions found unsuitable to serve in the forces. Some of them, who had already joined the forces, were removed from service.

Their exact number (at present), has not been disclosed but at the end of last October, M. Constantine Rendis. Minister of Public Order, told the press that they totalled less than 8000. They were, he said, divided into three battalions. A, B. and C. Battalion “A” consisted of between 1500 and 1800 soldiers of confirmed Communist views, who had refused to fight the rebels Battalion “B” consisted of between 2500 and 3000 soldiers suspected of being Communists and who were being screened and given courses of “political re-orientation.” Battalion “C” consisted of some 3000 soldiers who had formally renounced Communism and would eventually be returned to their units.

Recent reports have indicated that an increasing number of detainees on the island of Makronissos have agreed to sign statements condemning Communism and the Markos Rebellion.