Christos Sartzetakis was born in 1929 in Thessalonica. He studied
law at the University of Thessalonica, specialized in Mercantile and
European Community Law in Paris and entered the judiciary in 1955.
He is married to Effy Argiriou and has one daughter.
In 1963 he became internationally famous when, as a Thessalonica
judge, he conducted the investigation into the murder of the left-wing
Member of Parliament, Gregory Lambrakis, whose case he presided
over and helped to solve.
In 1968 during the military dictatorship, he was expelled from
the judiciary, arrested, tortured and imprisoned for almost a year
without a trial. With the fall of the dictatorship he was re-instated
into the judiciary in September 1974 with the rank of judge of the
Court of Appeal, rising in 1982 to Supreme Court Justice.
In 1985, the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) proposed Christos
Sartzetakis for President of the Republic, and he was elected on
29 March 1985, succeeding Constantinos Karamanlis.
Christos Sartzetakis is an honorary member of the High Court of
Portugal, an honorary Professor of the History and Ethnology Department
of the Dimokrition University of Thrace, an honorary member of the
Literary Society of Thessalonica and a member of scientific societies
in Greece and abroad. He has been awarded the highest medals of
foreign countries and is an honorary citizen of many towns in Greece.
He has published various legal and political works.
He maintains his own web page at: www.sartzetakis.gr
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