Greek junta trials

The Greek junta trials (Greek: Οι Δίκες της Χούντας translated as: The Τrials of the Junta) were the trials involving members of the military junta that ruled Greece from 21 April 1967 to 23 July 1974. These trials involved the instigators of the coup as well as other junta members of various ranks who took part in the events of the Athens Polytechnic uprising and in the torture of citizens.

The military coup leaders were formally arrested during the metapolitefsi period that followed the junta, and in early August 1975 the government of Konstantinos Karamanlis brought charges of high treason and insurrection against Georgios Papadopoulos and other co-conspirators. The mass trial, described as "Greece's Nuremberg" and known as "The Trial of the Instigators", took place at the Korydallos Prison amidst heavy security.

The principal leaders of the 1967 coup, Georgios Papadopoulos, Stylianos Pattakos and Nikolaos Makarezos, were sentenced to death for high treason, following the trial. Shortly after the sentences were pronounced, they were commuted to life imprisonment by the Karamanlis government.

The trial of the instigators was followed by a second trial which investigated the events surrounding the Athens Polytechnic uprising known as "The Trial of the Polytechnic" and, finally, a series of trials involving incidents of torture known in Greece as "The Trials of the Torturers".

Journalist and author Leslie Finer, who was expelled by the junta from Greece in 1968, reporting in 1975 on the trials for New Society wrote: "The trial of 20 ringleaders of the 1967 coup is a test of democratic justice. Among its other functions, this is a mode of exorcism and education." The trials exposed the pettiness, conspiracies, corruption, and incompetence, within the regime, and served to demystify it, and with it, destroy the myth of the junta strongman. The corruption, which came to light during the trials, was so widespread that it surprised even the military. The details of torture of senior officers by their subordinates, revealed during the trials, offended the career officer class. The invasion of Cyprus was the final straw which led to the military withdrawing its support for the junta and abandoning any notion of supporting any military men acting as politicians.