Pavlos Bakoyannis

Who was Pavlos Bakoyannis?

Pavlos Bakoyannis was a liberal Greek politician who was well known for his broadcasts against the Greek military dictatorship of 1967-1974 on Bayerische Rundfunk radio. He was shot and killed in the front entrance of his office in 1989 by members of the radical Marxist group "November 17".

Bakoyannis was a member of the New Democracy party, for which, at the time of his murder, he was parliamentary leader in the Hellenic Parliament.

He was married to Dora Bakoyannis, daughter of Constantine Mitsotakis. After the murder of Pavlos, she passed a law prohibiting the publication of terrorist groups' post-attack manifestos in Greek newspapers. Dora Bakoyannis has since claimed that the bill was a mistake, and did not attempt to re-establish it after its repeal in 1993.

Dimitris Koufodinas, Iraklis Kostaris and Alexandros Giotopoulos were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder by an Athens court in December 2003. Savvas Xiros and Vassilis Tzortzatos both received 18-year sentences for the murder.