‘In an era when criminal and penal codes are changing one after another, increasing sentence limits and the actual time prisoners spend serving them, even through illegal manoeuvres concerning the retroactive application of laws, and when the state’s main priority over time has been to deal with its political opponents, I am the first prisoner in Greek prisons and the first political prisoner serving a temporary 20-year prison sentence to complete the entirety of that sentence, without suspension, as had usually been the case until now,’ Maziotis wrote in a letter in which he described this as ‘a special September’.

The letter in full:

‘A special September…

Today, 2 September, marks the anniversary of one of the most important actions carried out by Revolutionary Struggle and by the domestic urban guerrilla movement more broadly: the car bomb attack using 150 kilograms of ANFO explosives against the Athens Stock Exchange in 2009.

It was then that Revolutionary Struggle was talking about the crisis, from 2005, before it broke out in the US and even before it hit the country in 2009–10. It was talking about the memoranda before they had even been imposed.

It spoke then about the opportunity for systemic overthrow and revolution, which unfortunately did not materialise.

5 September 2003 marks the anniversary of Revolutionary Struggle’s beginning, with the double bombing attack on the Evelpidon court complex in Athens.

In a few days, on 14 September, I will be released from prison upon completion of my sentence, having served 14 years in prison plus six years credited through prison labour, amounting to a total sentence of 20 years, imposed on me for my actions in Revolutionary Struggle.

In an era when criminal and penal codes are changing one after another, increasing sentence limits and the actual time prisoners spend serving them, even through illegal manoeuvres concerning the retroactive application of laws, and when the state’s main priority over time has been to deal with its political opponents, I am the first prisoner in Greek prisons and the first political prisoner serving a temporary 20-year prison sentence to complete the entirety of that sentence, without suspension, as had usually been the case until now.

This development is the result of the fact that the judicial councils of Lamia have rejected my conditional release seven times on the grounds that I have not been “corrected”, have not “improved” morally and refuse to recognise Revolutionary Struggle’s actions as criminal.

Indeed, they are right! At a hearing of the Judicial Council, when I was asked whether I had been “corrected”, I replied that this would not happen even in 1,000,000 years.

I therefore refuse to adopt their “ethics”, the ethics of submission, nor have I, of course, revised my position on Revolutionary Struggle’s actions, which were beneficial and necessary for the social majority, the people and the proletariat, since they were directed against the criminal state-capitalist system of power.

Especially under today’s conditions, in which the system is becoming increasingly brutal, condemning us to lifelong debt slavery, poverty and destitution, exterminating peoples and populations it deems surplus through wars, genocides and policies aimed at preserving itself, and slowly but surely killing the planet we live on for the sake of profit and the power of a vile minority.

Under these conditions, the struggle against the state and capital is not only just but necessary and imperative.

I would not change my political and militant choices in the slightest, even if I could turn back time.

Completing the entirety of my sentence also has a positive side, since I will not be subject to any restrictive conditions, meaning that I will not have to report to the police station in the area where I will be living.

I thank from the bottom of my heart all the comrades and everyone who, in any way, stood in solidarity with us over all these years, the members of Revolutionary Struggle who remained consistent with the choices we made in struggle.

NO REVISION – NO REGRET

LONG LIVE REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE

HONOUR FOREVER TO COMRADE LAMBROS FOUNDAS

2 September 2026

Domokos Prison

Nikos Maziotis’

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