A convicted Greek far-left terrorist serving multiple life sentences for a string of assassinations including two Turkish diplomats, temporarily walked free yesterday after being granted a two-day furlough, the third since late last year.

Dimitris Koufodinas, 61, was met by a small group of friends and sympathizers as he exited the top-security Korydallos prison in Athens. He must appear daily at his local police station. Koufodinas had held a two-week hunger strike to press for his furlough, after it was delayed for procedural reasons. Anarchists launched a series of vandalism attacks and protests backing his demand. Koufodinas has admitted to membership of the November 17 terrorist group, Greece's deadliest, which has killed 23 western diplomats and Greeks between 1975 and 2000.

His group is responsible for the murder of Çetin Görgü, a press attache at the Turkish Embassy in Athens in 1991, the 1994 killing of Counsellor Ömer Haluk Sipahioğlu stationed at the embassy and a bombing in 1991 that wounded Deniz Bölükbaşı, another embassy employee. November 17's other targets include a CIA station chief and a defense attache at the British Embassy.