Nikos Paraskevopoulos was born in Athens in 1949, he is an honorary professor of Criminal Law at the Law School of Aristotle University. He has served as President of the Department of Law at AUTh and Dean of the School of Law, Economics, and Political Sciences at AUTh. He has participated in law drafting committees, acted as a mediator in prisoner uprisings (1990, 1996), upon the request of the rioters, and he has been responsible for reintegration programs for released prisoners (1988-1997). Expressed opinions of his have been adopted by criminal legislation (reform of crimes against freedom-state and decriminalization of adultery, introduction of cases of judicial amnesty, new legislation on the confinement of mentally ill in psychiatric hospitals, abolition of the death penalty and special law against terrorism, decriminalization of insult of crime, reduction of penalties for dependent drug traffickers, facilitation of the choice of detoxification).
He has written books focusing on the interpretation of the penal code, the penal laws on narcotics, emphasizing his criticism over legal gaps and imperfections regarding human rights and the rights of the accused. He has also published books on the history of criminal law. He served as Minister of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights from 27 January 2015 to 27 August 2015, and from 23 September to 5 November 2016. He was also elected MP for Thessaloniki A΄ with SYRIZA in the elections of September 2015.
