Lawyers for the 86-year-old acknowledge he does not have the medical problems specified in a law that allows inmates 80 or older who suffer from severe disability, senility or cirrhosis to be freed, Kathimerini reported. But they say Ioannides does have other health problems that would justify clemency.

Ioannides was arrested in 1975, a few months after the downfall of the junta. He was convicted of high treason, rebellion and conspiracy to manslaughter and given a death sentence that was commuted to life in prison.

Justice Minister Sotiris Hatzigakis has specifically said Ioannides would not be released. A similar appeal last year was rejected.

A career military officer who had served in the civil war against the Communists in the 1940s, Ioannides became head of the military police under the junta. In 1973, he helped overthrow George Papadopolous, who had been president since the 1967 coup.

In 1974, he organized a coup in Cyprus that led to the Turkish invasion and the downfall of the Athens junta.