 Shortly after the sentences were pronounced, they were commuted to life imprisonment by the Karamanlis government.Pattakos remained in prison for 17 consecutive years.He was released from jail on 28 September 1990 by the government of Konstantinos Mitsotakis due to alleged health reasonsand was put under house arrest.He was obliged to report to the police office for registration every 15 days.He later stated that he did not regret any of his actions during the dictatorship.In addition,he refused that people were tortured during the dictatorship except Alekos Panagoulis and Spiros Moustaklis who "they had it coming".