G.A. Magakis

Georgios-Alexandros Magakis was born in Athens on 25 June 1922 and died on 5 September 2011. He was the son of Antonis Magakis, Member of Parliament for the Cyclades, and husband of Angeliki, daughter of former Prime Minister Stylianos Gonatas. He studied at the Athens Law School from 1940 to 1946. He then served in the Navy until 1950 and undertook postgraduate studies at the University of Munich, where, in 1953, he was awarded a doctorate in Criminal Law. In 1955, he became a lecturer in Criminal Law in Athens and, four years later, a senior lecturer. Alongside his academic career, he practised law in criminal trials, particularly during the period of the ‘Uncompromising Struggle’, when he defended students, workers and others facing political persecution. Between 1962 and 1963, he taught at the University of Freiburg in Germany as a visiting professor, whilst in 1968, he was unanimously elected as an adjunct professor of Criminal Law at the Athens Law School; but the dictatorship not only failed to approve his appointment but, in February 1969, permanently removed him from his post as a lecturer.

His lectures at the Law School during the colonels’ dictatorship, and in particular his farewell lecture, which constituted a public anti-dictatorial demonstration, led him for the first time to the Security Police headquarters on Bouboulinas Street. A few months later, in July 1969, he was arrested for anti-dictatorial activities. He spent around five months in solitary confinement and was subjected to torture, whilst in April 1970, he was sentenced by the Athens Special Military Court in the ‘Democratic Defence’ trial to 18 years’ imprisonment. He was imprisoned for about three years in various prisons (Averof, Eptapyrgio, Korydallos, Trikala), where he wrote resistance texts denouncing the dictatorial regime. One of these texts, ‘Letter from Prison’, was widely published by the foreign media, and another, entitled ‘My Greece’, was included in the resistance publication ‘New Texts’, which was released in Athens in 1971. In 1972, whilst he was imprisoned, the University of Heidelberg appointed him full professor of Criminal Law and Philosophy of Law. In April of the same year, he was released from prison on health grounds and fled to Heidelberg, where he taught Criminal Law whilst continuing his anti-dictatorship struggle. In 1974, he returned to Greece following the fall of the dictatorship, served in the Government of National Unity – the first post-dictatorship government – as Minister of Public Works, and resumed his work at the university. In the same year, he was elected for the first time as a Member of Parliament for Athens B on the Centre Union – New Forces ticket. In September 1976, he helped found the ‘Socialist Initiative’, whilst in 1978, at his suggestion, the ‘Socialist Initiative’ ceased its activities and joined forces with PASOK. In 1980, he joined PASOK and in 1981 became Governor of the National Bank, a position he held for a year, until 1982, when he became Minister of Justice. On 13 March 1989, he abstained from the vote on the motion of no confidence tabled by the New Democracy party against the government, with the result that the President of PASOK, Andreas Papandreou, and the members of the Executive Bureau to recommend his expulsion, which was ratified the following day by the Disciplinary Council. On 5 October 1989, he rejoined PASOK, taking part in the formation of the new body known as the Political Council, for the democratic alliance ahead of the November elections. In 1990, together with other lawyers, he founded the organisation ‘Democratic Responsibility of Lawyers’ for the protection of individual freedoms and democratic institutions, and was elected its president. On 24 September 1990, at the 2nd PASOK Congress, he was elected a member of the party’s Central Committee. On 5 April 1992, she was elected Member of Parliament for the 2nd constituency of Athens, taking the seat that had become vacant following the removal of D. Tsovolas from office. On 17 April 1994, at the 3rd PASOK Congress, he was re-elected as a member of the party’s Central Committee. He served as vice-chairman of the National Council for the Recovery of German Debts to Greece, whilst in 1996 he became chairman of the ‘United National Resistance’, which had been founded in 1974 by all the resistance organisations.