Former president Christos Sartzetakis died early on Thursday in a hospital in Athens at the age of 93.

Sartzetakis had been treated in the intensive care unit of Laiko General Hospital.

He was born in 1929 in Neapoli, Thessaloniki. He studied law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and entered the judiciary in 1955. 

In 1963 he became known when, as a judge in Thessaloniki, he conducted the investigation into the murder of the left-wing member of Parliament, Grigoris Lambrakis. He presided over the case and opposed to pressure from the political and judicial leadership of the times.

His role in the case was immortalised in director Costa Gavras’ movie "Z".

During the period 1965-1967 he concluded his postgraduate studies in Commercial Law and European Community Law, in Paris.

In 1968, during the military dictatorship, he was expelled from the judiciary, arrested, tortured and imprisoned for almost a year without a trial. With the fall of the dictatorship he was re-instated into the judiciary in September 1974 with the rank of judge of the Court of Appeal.

In 1981 he was promoted to the rank of President of the Court of Appeals and in 1982 to the rank of Supreme Court Justice.

In 1985, the socialist PASOK party proposed Sartzetakis as President of the Republic, and he was elected president on 29 March 1985, serving in this office until May 5, 1990.

State funeral on Monday

The funeral service for former president of the Hellenic Republic Christos Sartzetakis will be held at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral at 12 noon on Monday (Feb. 7), his office said.

Sartzetakis will be buried with state honours and at public expense at the First Cemetery of Athens. Only close kin will be attending due to standing coronavirus pandemic restrictions, his office said.

Those wishing to make donations could direct them at either the Association of Parents of Children with Neoplastic Disease (FLOGA) or the Estia Social Care Center for people with intellectual disability.