Konstantinos Plevris

Konstantinos A. Plevris (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος Α. Πλεύρης), in English usually Constantine Plevris or Kostas Plevris, is an attorney of law of the Greek Supreme Court and controversial Greek nationalist author. Over the course of decades he has authored dozens of books relating to Greek history, Greek culture, sociology, and politics. He was the founder and leader of two nationalist parties, 4th of August and Front Line. He later joined Popular Orthodox Rally. He currently is the host of the weekly television program "Edo Ellas" (Εδώ Ελλάς in Greek) on channel EXTRA-3 and was the host of "Istorikes Mnimes" (Ιστορικές Μνήμες) for a decade on channel TeleAsty. He is also the father of Greek member of parliament Thanos Plevris.

In December 2007, Plevris was found guilty of inciting racial hatred by a Greek court because of revisionist views on the Holocaust in his book "The Jews - The Whole Truth". He appealed the court ruling and on the 27th of March 2009 the court of appeals has found Plevris "not guilty"..

Controversy

Lawsuit against Nikos Kleitsikas

Nikos Kleitsikas, in his 2000 book The Greek Student Movement in Italy, claimed that Plevris was a CIA or MOSSAD agent during the Cold War and participated in bombings. Plevris successfully sued Nikos Kleitsikas and the publisher of the book, Aggelos Sideratos, for libel in the summer of 2006. The Greek court of appeals vindicated him and the defendants were forced to pay a large sum in compensation and issue statements that they respect Plevris and anything said against him in the book was the result of erroneous information and untruthful sources.

Lawsuit over Jews: The Whole Truth

Konstantinos Plevris is the author of Jews: The Whole truth, a highly critical appraisal of Judaism and Zionism, published in June 2006.

In the book, Plevris describes himself as a "Nazi, fascist, racist, anti-democrat, anti-Semite" (p. 600), subscribes to the myth of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, characterizes Jewish children in the concentration camps as "very fat" and "well-fed", claims that Jews are "subhuman" (p. 583) "mortal enemies", and criticizes the Nazis for "not ridding Europe of Jewish Zionism". In the same book, he characterizes former UN secretary Kofi Annan as "cannibal" and "descendant of cannibals" and allegedly states that Jews need to be "rounded-up and executed within 24 hours", which is "the only way they understand" (p. 742). However, Plevris contends that "Of the 1,400 pages of my large book, the condemnation encompasses only several paragraphs, of which portions were extracted, with the result that another meaning was given to the words and truth is distorted due to the alteration of phrases". On the other hand, district attorney Leonidas Lazarakos referred to Plevris as a " historian".

For this book Plevris was indicted by the a Greek district attorney on charges of inciting racial violence. Shortly after its publication the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and the Greek Helsinki Monitor brought a suit against Plevris for "insulting Jews" and "injury to Judaism". They also brought charges against the newspaper Eleftheros Kosmos, which published extracts of the book. In December of 2006, Plevris was indicted for violation of Article 191 of the Penal Code, the dissemination of false news. Several weeks later Eleftheros Kosmos and Plevris learned that they were being taken to court under the Greek Anti-Racist Law of 1979. Both Plevris and Eleftheros Kosmos characterized the lawsuit as an attempt to suppress free speech. According to Plevris, this lawsuit had no legal basis as it is a "violation of articles 320, 321 (paragraph 1), and 111 (paragraph 7) of the Greek Penal Code".

The first hearing, which was set for 5 September 2007, was postponed until 11 September 2007. The trial began on 11 September 2007 but, due to time constraints, it was again postponed, this time to 3 December 2007.

On the first court date, several supporters of Plevris and the far-right Eleftheros Kosmos attended. During his trial, the following came out in support of Plevris: Christos Pasalaris and Kostas Kolmer, Popular Orthodox Rally candidate Antonis Naxakis, Maria Tzanni, Spiros Zournatzis, Giorgos Shoinas, President of the Association of Greek-Arabic Civilization Giorgos Palmos, Basilis Protopappas, Popular Orthodox Rally candidates Giannis Sirros and Giannis Tsilimigras, Maria Douraki, Giorgos Loentaritis, Popular Orthodox Rally member Panagiotis Doumas, and Vasilis Misiris.

On December 13, 2007 the court found Plevris guilty of inciting racial hatred and handed him a 14-month suspended sentence. His co-accused, the publisher, editor and a journalist of Eleftheros Kosmos were found not guilty. Plevris condemned the verdict, stating that "Jews are trying to fight me with this trial so they can shut my mouth".

Counter-lawsuit over "Jews: The Whole Truth"

In response to publications of Eleftherotypia's "Ios" which depicts "Jews: The Whole Truth" as a "Nazistic and anti-Semitic" book and Plevris as a "Nazi and Fascist", Plevris launched a libel suit against the newspaper for the sum of €1.2 million. All four journalists of "Ios" (Dimitris Trimis, Tasos Kostopoulos, Aggeliki Psarra, and Dimitris Psarras), editor-in-chief Serafeim Fintanidis, and the paper's published, were sued for €200,000 euros each. The official court date has not yet been set. Plevris also sued Panagiotis Dimitras of the Greek Helsinki Monitor for the sum of €200,000 as compensation for libel. The court date was set for 7 February 2008. In addition, Plevris counter-sued all seven executive members of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece for €200,000 each. The court date was set for 24 January 2008.

As a result of the entire affair, Plevris wrote a book entitled The Struggle for the Truth: The Adventure of a Book, which claims to detail the events, controversy, and circumstances of the last 15 months.

Works

• Ο ΑΓΩΝ ΔΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑΝ – Η ΠΕΡΙΠΕΤΕΙΑ ΕΝΟΣ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΥ ("The Struggle for the truth - the adventure of a book"). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2007.
• Η ΤΗΛΕΟΡΑΣΙΣ ("The television"). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2007.
• Εβραίοι, όλη η Αλήθεια ("Jews, all the truth"). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2006.
• Η ΕΠΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΙΣ ("The revolution"). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2006.
• ΟΙ ΚΙΝΑΙΔΟΙ (*The gay people*). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2005.
• 21 Απριλιου 1967 ("21 April 1967", probably referring to 21 April 1967 in Greek politics). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2003.
• Αγια Σοφια: Εθνικόν Χρέος των Ελλήνων η Απελευθέρωσίς Της (Agia Sofia: National duty of the Greeks its liberation"). Athens: Νεα Θεσις, 1997.
• Βασιλεια. Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2004.
• Ο Αξιωματικος και οι Νεοραγιαδες. Athens: Νεα Θεσις, 2002.
• Ο Διωγμος των Αριστων. Athens: Νεα Θεσις, 1987.
• Η Σημαια ("The flag"). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2004.
• θρησκευμα και Ταυτοτης: Πλήρης και στοιχειοθετημένη ανάλυσις του ζητήματος, δια την αναγραφήν του θρησκεύματος εις τας ταυτότητας ("Religion and identity: Complete and fact-supported analysis of the issue, for the inclusion of religion in the identities", referring to the new Greek national identity cards which replaced the old national identity cards of Greece which included the religion of the cardholder in its data). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2004.
• Ο Λαος Ξεχνα τι Σημαινει Αριστερα: κείμενα και φωτογραφίαι ("The people forget what leftism means: texts and photographs"). Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2003.
• Κοινωνιολογία ("Sociology"). Athens: Νεα Θεσις, 1985.
• Ο Καπιταλιστής: Ένα συνοπτικό σημείωμα για τον εκμεταλλευτή των ανθρώπων ("The Capitalist: A summary note for the exploiter of the humans"). Athens: Νεα Θεσις, 1989.
• Πας Μη Ελλην Βαρβαρος: Εννοιολογική παρουσίασις του δηλωτικου της Ελληνικης υπεροχης. Athens: Ηλεκτρον, 2003.
• Ιωαννης Μεταξας (Βιογραφία) ("Ioannis Metaxas (Biography)", referring to Ioannis Metaxas). Athens: Κοκκινη Μηλια, 1975.
• Τα Εικοσι Πρωτοκολλα της Προδοσιας ("The twenty protocols of the treason"). Athens: Νεα Θεσις, 1995.
• Ας Μιλησουμε Για Εβραιους! ("Let us talk for Jews!") Athens: Νεα Θεσις, 1990.
• Αντιδημοκράτης ("Antidemocrat"). 1965.
• Μετακομμουνισμός ("Metacommunism"). 1967.
• Πολιτική Προπαγάνδα ("Political propaganda"). 1968.
• Κοσμοθεωρία του Εθνικισμου. 1969

External links

• Constantine Plevris Video Archive
• Small Archive of "Istorikes Mnimes"