Evagoras Pallikarides

Evagoras Pallikarides (Greek: Ευαγόρας Παλληκαρίδης; 27 February 1938 – 14 March 1957) was a Greek-Cypriot poet and revolutionary who was a member of EOKA during the anticolonial 1955–1959 campaign against British rule in Cyprus. He was arrested on 18 December 1956 while transporting weaponry with his guerilla group, to which he confessed in his trial. He was sentenced to death by hanging, for firearms possession on 27 February 1957 and was the youngest fighter to be executed in Cyprus. His death generated widespread international condemnation due to his young age and the circumstances of his arrest.

Propaganda leaflets published and distributed after the hanging included a fabricated description of how he had murdered a traitor. The lawfulness of his execution has been subsequently questioned because the weapon he held at the time was not functional. In the A. W. B. Simpson book Human Rights and the End of Empire, Simpson claims that the real reason for Pallikarides' execution was that the authorities believed (but were unable to prove) that he had earlier murdered an individual who was a suspected collaborator with the British authorities.