Nikos Sampson was sentenced to twenty years in prison for his role as the political leader of the coup.
20 Facts About Nikos Sampson
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Nikos Sampson was born in the Cypriot port city of Famagusta to Nikos Sampson Georgiadis and Theano Liasidou.
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Nikos Sampson began his working life at a Cyprus newspaper, The Cyprus Times, which was owned and edited by Charles Foley.
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Nikos Sampson joined EOKA and formed part of an execution team under the direct orders of General Georgios Grivas, leader of EOKA.
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At the time, Nikos Sampson was working as a journalist, and he would often photograph the bodies of his victims after killing them, then send the photographs to The Cyprus Times newspaper to be published.
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The police became suspicious about how Nikos Sampson was always the first reporter to arrive at the murder scene and he was arrested.
7.
Nikos Sampson was convicted of weapons possession which, under the emergency regulations of the moment, carried a death sentence.
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The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and Nikos Sampson was flown to the United Kingdom to serve it.
9.
Nikos Sampson was charged with the murder, but released three days later.
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Nikos Sampson led armed groups in fierce battles between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot irregulars.
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In 1969 Nikos Sampson founded the Progressive Party, which later merged into the Progressive Front.
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Nikos Sampson was elected to the House of Representatives in the 1970 elections.
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Nikos Sampson maintained a strongly nationalist, pro-Greek position throughout these years.
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Nikos Sampson's appointment was an on-the-spot decision to avoid a power vacuum.
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The second Junta of Greece fell on 24 July 1974, only eight days after Nikos Sampson had been appointed.
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Nikos Sampson claimed not to have anticipated the impending coup that had installed him, adding that, after military officers had insisted, he "saw the possibility of civil war and accepted" to prevent the clashes.
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Nonetheless, Nikos Sampson was prosecuted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for abuse of power in 1976.
18.
Nikos Sampson spent much of his time between Paris and Marseilles before returning to Cyprus in June 1990 to complete his sentence.
19.
Nikos Sampson died of cancer on 9 May 2001 in Nicosia at the age of 65.
20.
Nikos Sampson is survived by his wife Vera and two children, one of whom is a lawyer and the other a journalist.