Agios Efstratios

Agios Efstratios was used to house political prisoners in internal exile since the 1930s. The first communists were exiled to the island with the Idionymon law of Venizelos, later during the Metaxas Regime and again during the Greek civil war. After Makronisos it became the largest prison island in Aegean. During the Greek military junta of 1967–74, the island was again used as a prison for political dissidents. Exiles here included Ilias Iliou, Stefanos Sarafis, Dimitris Glinos, Kostas Varnalis, Tassos Leivaditis, Yiannis Ritsos, Menelaos Lountemis, Manos Katrakis and Mikis Theodorakis.