The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Patra Court of Appeal has ordered an investigation into the deaths of eight inmates over the past three months at Agios Stefanos Prison in western Greece.
Panagiotis Metaxas, president of the Patra Bar Association, told Kathimerini that the head of the appeals prosecutor’s office had instructed authorities to examine the circumstances and causes of the deaths.
Police have opened separate case files for each incident and, according to information cited by the newspaper, the deaths are believed to have resulted from natural causes.
The fatalities have raised concerns about prison conditions and access to healthcare. Metaxas said representatives of the Patra Bar Association recently visited the facility alongside an appeals prosecutor and the prison’s supervising prosecutor.
The association has also sent formal appeals to the ministries of Justice, Citizen Protection and Health, as well as to the General Secretariat for Anti-Crime Policy, the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, prison oversight authorities, the Council of Europe, the Greek Ombudsman and the National Preventive Mechanism against Torture and Ill-Treatment.
