Ειδικό Δικαστήριο Θεσσαλονίκης (1945-1946) : η περίπτωση των οικονομικών δοσιλόγων

Abstract

After the end of the Second World War, the Greek Government of
National Unity deferred to the widespread feeling that justice should be done
and announced the exemplary punishment of those who had collaborated with
the enemy. To this end the government passed Constituent Act 1/44, which the
Plastiras administration later replaced with Constituent Act 6/45 defining the
legal basis for the trials. The term “collaborators” also embraced those who had established economic
relations with representatives of the three occupying powers —Italy,
Germany, and Bulgaria— and enjoyed financial gain to the detriment of society
as a whole. The economic collaborators found themselves repeatedly in
the limelight, because the relevant legislation was constantly being revised in
their favour on the grounds that it was necessary to decongest the prisons. It
soon became clear that the successive governments were increasingly inclined
to resolve their differences with the economic collaborators with a view to
easing the burden on the Special Courts and accelerating the desperately slow
rate at which the trials were being conducted. The measures that were implemented
were favourable to most of the economic collaborators, many of whom
were released, while those who were eventually convicted served only very
short prison terms.