Vassilikos, and Sartzetakis was portrayed by Jean-Louis Trintignant in the novel's 1969 film adaptation by Costas Gavras. After the Lambrakis prosecution, with permission to study commercial law and European Community law, Sartzetakis moved to Paris. He was twice arrested by the Junta, first on Christmas Eve of 1970, and was tortured by Greek Military Police. After an international outcry, he was released from the Junta's prison in 1971. Restoration of democracy In September 1974, after the toppling of the dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in Greece, Sartzetakis was completely rehabilitated. As a member of the Court of Appeals, in 1976 he rejected Germany's request to extradite the terrorist Rolf Pohle, arguing that his crimes were political and the Greek constitution prevented extradition in such cases. The prosecutor of the Supreme Court initiated disciplinary proceedings against him and the other two judges who issued that decision. He was named president of the Court of Appeals in 1981 and became a member of the Supreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece in 1982. Presidency (1985-1990) The atmosphere just prior to the 1985 presidential elections was particularly unstable politically and the media of the time and the political parties considered the re-election of Konstantinos Karamanlis as President of the Republic as certain. It was then that the Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou nominated Sartzetakis, a judge who had not been involved in politics, as a candidate to succeed Karamanlis. On 10 March 1985, immediately following the public announcement of this decision, Karamanlis resigned in the face of PASOK's unexpected rejection of his re-election and because of his opposition to Papandreou's recently announced plans to reform the 1975 Constitution and transfer the few executive powers from the President of the Republic to the Prime Minister. Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Ioannis Alevras took over as acting President of Greece. The first vote in the Greek parliament took place on 17 March, in which Sartzetakis obtained 178 votes as a sole candidate. The second vote was held on 23 March and he obtained support from 181 of the deputies. That vote was controversial as the ballot papers were of different colors, with Sartzetakis' being blue and the others white, causing a violation of the secrecy of the vote. It was not until the third and stormy vote, held on 29 March, for Sartzetakis to be elected the new president to a 5-year term, thanks to