The former President of the Hellenic Republic, Christos Sarzetakis, has died

He passed away on Thursday, February 3 the former President of the Republic, Christos Sarzetakis.

The former President of the Republic was hospitalized on a ventilator at the People's Hospital since December 1, due to aspiration pneumonia. As of December 3, he was being treated at the ICU of the «LAIKO» General Hospital, due to acute respiratory failure.

He was a retired senior judge who had served as President of the Hellenic Republic from 1985 to 1990.

He gained worldwide recognition when he carried out his duties with exemplary courage in the case of the murder of the left-wing member of parliament Grigoris Lambrakis, even though he was under pressure from the government at the time and the leadership of the judiciary and the security forces.

As President of the Republic, he carried out his duties with exceptional commitment to the Constitution, particularly during the turbulent period of 1989–1990, when the elections failed to yield an absolute majority for any party.

Who was Christos Sartzetakis?

He was born in Neapoli, Thessaloniki, on April 6, 1929. His father was a Gendarmerie officer, originally from Chania. His mother, née Grammenopoulou, was from Skithro, Florina, and was the daughter of Kosmas Grammenopoulos, a Macedonian freedom fighter. He graduated from the Law School of the University of Thessaloniki and entered the judiciary in 1955. In 1961, she served as an investigating judge in Agrinio during the investigation of educator Michalis Papamavros.

In 1956, he served as a justice of the peace in Kleisoura, Kastoria. In 1963, he served at the Court of First Instance in Thessaloniki and became known as the investigating judge in the case of the assassination of left-wing Member of Parliament Grigoris Lambrakis. He conducted the investigation without yielding to political pressure from the political and judicial authorities of the time. His courageous stance was depicted in the film “Z” by Costa-Gavras.

While on a study leave, he pursued graduate studies in Commercial Law and European Community Law in Paris from 1965 to 1967.

In 1968, during the military junta, he was dismissed from the judiciary and subsequently arrested twice, tortured at the EAT-ESA, and imprisoned without trial. He was released from the junta’s prisons following an international outcry in 1971. With the fall of the dictatorship, he was reinstated to his position in September 1974 with the rank of appellate judge.

In 1976, he was a member of the panel of the Court of Appeals that rejected Germany’s request for the extradition of Rolf Pole, who was wanted for terrorist activities, on the grounds that his crimes were political in nature and, therefore, his extradition was prohibited by the Greek Constitution. The Prosecutor of the Supreme Court initiated disciplinary proceedings against the three judges who formed the majority (K. Alexopoulos, S. Vallas, and H. Sartzetakis) for this decision, a move that was considered an impermissible interference with judicial independence.

In 1981, he was promoted to the rank of President of the Court of Appeals, and in 1982, to the rank of Justice of the Supreme Court.

During the 1985 presidential election, Christos Sartzetakis was nominated by PASOK and elected by that party and the left-wing parties on March 29, 1985, as President of the Republic, a position he held until May 5, 1990.

His election was linked to two constitutional issues: the «colored ballots» and the «Alevra vote.» Ballots of different colors were used for each candidate, a practice that the official opposition at the time (New Democracy) denounced as an attempt to undermine the secrecy of the vote, because, as it argued, the color of each ballot was visible through the semi-transparent envelope. It was also argued that the then Speaker of the Parliament, Yannis Alevras, should not have taken part in the vote, as he was acting as President of the Republic, following the early resignation of Konstantinos Karamanlis.

His term in office was marked by his steadfast refusal, as President of the Republic, to grant a pardon to Christos Roussos, who was serving a life sentence, even though the conditions were met and the Pardon Council had issued a favorable recommendation. The hunger strike launched by Roussos sparked a broad solidarity movement, in which prominent figures from the intellectual, legal, political, and artistic circles from Greece and abroad. Ultimately, Christos Roussos was released from prison after being granted a pardon in 1990 by the next President of the Republic, Konstantinos Karamanlis.

After 1990, he largely withdrew from public life, although he wrote regularly for newspapers and publishes articles on his website.

He was married to Efi Argyriou and had one daughter.

On December 21, 2018, he was honored by the Academy of Athens. The award was presented for the publication of the work «Fulfilling My Duty,» a text containing the dissenting opinion he issued in 1964 as an investigator in the Lambrakis case, which was hailed as a brilliant example of a conscientious, thorough, meticulous, and courageous investigative approach.