Kos: first electronic monitoring bracelet in the islands

The District Court Council of Kos issued ruling no. 131/2026 on 4 August 2026, ordering the release of a 68-year-old retired bank employee from Kos prison and requiring home confinement with electronic monitoring at his residence in Rhodes. According to the newspaper reporting the case, this is the first such ruling in the Dodecanese. The 68-year-old is serving a five-year prison sentence for systematic embezzlement causing damages exceeding 120,000 euros, by virtue of a decision from the Three-Judge Court of Appeal of the Dodecanese in April 2025, for an offense allegedly committed in Rhodes in 2006.

The calculation of time served was decisive for the ruling. The prisoner has been held since 11 April 2025, with actual time in custody totalling one year and two days. With the beneficial calculation of working days within the prison, it is considered he has served two years and ten months, leaving two years and two months to be served at home. The Council set two conditions: residence at his address in Rhodes, where he lives with his wife, under electronic monitoring, and prohibition on leaving the country. The application was filed by his lawyer and the Council adopted the prosecutor’s recommendation, noting that the prisoner has never been disciplined and his relations with staff and fellow inmates were characterized as good.

The confinement would initially be complete, as he has requested no leave periods nor submitted work documents or scheduled medical examinations that would justify absences from home; any such arrangement may be made later by the prosecutor. It is worth noting that the cassation appeal he filed is pending before the Court of Cassation and has not yet been decided, however the law does not require a final conviction for release under electronic monitoring. The institution has been in full operation across the country since 18 May 2026, with monitoring carried out by the competent agency of the General Secretariat for Countering Crime.

For islands, where prisons are small and transferring detainees to the mainland is costly and time-consuming, the expansion of electronic monitoring has practical significance beyond this individual case, as it permits sentences to be served near a person’s place of residence and relieves pressure on facilities. The case, as described by the newspaper, relates to loans totalling 2,257,022 euros from bank branches in Rhodes on false credentials, following a complaint of 26 March 2007. Next steps depend on the Court of Cassation’s ruling on the cassation appeal, which may overturn or uphold the conviction. Economic crime cases with multi-year judicial proceedings engage Greek courts systematically, as does the telephone fraud ring with loot of 169,500 euros in Aigion.