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Georgios Papadopoulos (May 5th, 1919 - June 27th, 1999) was the head of the military coup d'état that took place in Greece on 21 April 1967, and leader of the junta that ruled the country from 1967 to 1974, commonly known as the "Regime of the Colonels." He held his dictatorial power until 1973, when he was himself overthrown by his co-conspirator Dimitrios Ioannidis. During his rule he subjected civilians to numerous human rights abuses, including censorship, mass arrests, torture and beatings.
Papadopoulos was a Colonel of the Artillery. During World War II, he initially resisted the Italian 1940 invasion but later became an active Axis collaborator in the Security Battalions which "hunted down" Greek resistance fighters.
He underwent military and intelligence training in the United States during the 1950s, and had connections to the CIA. After his rule along with the rest of the Junta he was sentenced to life imprisonment until his death in 1999 in a hospital in Athens at the age of 80.