Inmate Vassilis Dimakis started his third hunger and thirst strike on Saturday, as the state deprives him of the right to education although this is secured by the law. Under a pretext of 14-quarantine because of the pandemic, the inmate in Korydallos Prison in Athens has no access to his laptop and internet in order to attend university classes.
Dimakis took part in a prison protest demanding health protocols and antiseptics amid the pandemic. Is this the reason the state adopted an extra punitive measure, and restricted the law granting inmates rights to education in the name of one prisoner?
Dimakis is a third year undergraduate student at the Department of Political Sciences and Public Governance of the School of Economic and Political Sciences of the National Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Having first been in prison in his teenager years, he managed to finish high school in prison and was granted a scholarship due to exceptional educational performances.
For everybody knowing the Greek prison system and its grave shortages in punitive measures, one would say that Dimakis found all by himself the “right way” to be able to return back to the society one day.
Instead of awarding him, the state seems to punish him for that.
