A convicted murderer and terrorist in Greece is attracting international attention over a seven-week long hunger strike, protesting his current accommodations and asking to be transferred to a different prison. 

Dimitris Koufodinas, the main hit man for the far-left November 17 terrorist organization that perpetrated dozens of murders of Greek, Turkish, American and Turkish victims, is on a hunger strike demanding he be transferred to a different prison. 

Supporters of Koufodinas have staged protests in Greece, while the Greek government refuses to intervene and accommodate the request.

“(Dimitris) Koufodinas is demanding privileged treatment outside legal norms,” government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni told reporters during a press conference. “The state does not negotiate with convicts and will not relinquish its sovereign right to how to detain them. (He) has the ability to end the hunger strike and exercise the legal options at his disposal.”

Doctors treating Koufodinas said over the weekend that his health had deteriorated and that his life was “hanging on with a thread.”

The Associated Press reported that Koufodinas has staged another three hunger strikes in recent years, which he concluded after getting what he was seeking, including, in 2015, a demand not to be sent to the prison to which he is now asking to be transferred.

Featured image credit: Tilemahos Efthimiadis via Flickr