The scene in Athens after the British diplomat Brigadier Stephen Saunders was shot dead by terrorists in June 2000

A terrorist convicted of killing more than a dozen people, including a former British military attaché, has been granted leave from prison.

Dimitris Koufodinas was jailed for orchestrating 13 political assassinations YIORGOS KARAHALIS/REUTERS

In 2003 Dimitris Koufodinas, 44, was sentenced to more than 1,300 years in prison for orchestrating 13 political assassinations, dozens of bomb attacks and bank robberies. He was part of a group of Marxist-Leninist guerrillas called November 17.

The 48-hour release is the first time Koufodinas has been out of jail since he gave himself up 15 years ago. He is required to report to a police station near his home in Varnavas, 25 miles from Athens, twice a day.

His assassination of Brigadier Stephen Saunders, Britain’s top military official in Greece, in 2000 was the group’s final hit before a British-led investigation