Greek Military Police The Greek Military Police ( ) , generally known in English by the acronym ESA ( ΕΣΑ ) was the military police branch of the Greek Army in the years 1951 - 1974 . It developed into a powerful paramilitary organization and a stronghold of right - wing , conservative Army officers . It became the main security ( secret police ) and intelligence organization during the Greek military junta of 1967 – 1974 and was occasionally used as a death squad by the ruling Colonels . After the fall of the junta and the restoration of democracy in 1974 , it was disbanded because of its brutal practices , which included the widespread use of torture . Today the Greek Army maintains a military police section , called Stratonomia , but its powers are not nearly as extensive as those of ESA . Junta . The ESA was not created by the dictatorship , as it is sometimes believed . It was established in 1951 , as Greece was preparing to join NATO . Up until then , the Greek Army did not have a specialized military police force . Being posted in the ESA was a major bonus for Army officers because it had very extensive powers within the military , even before the dictatorship . Both the officers and the soldiers who served in ESA were picked for their extreme , almost paranoid , anti - communism . This resulted in making ESA a bastion of the most conservative and anti - democratic members of the Greek officer corps . ESA men wore a distinctive uniform with a royal blue cap and aiguillette . In April 1967 , shortly after seizing power in a coup , junta leader George Papadopoulos appointed Dimitrios Ioannides chief of the ESA , which gradually had been transformed into an internal security army . When Papadopoulos declared Martial law after the 1967 coup , he increased the power of the ESA even further by making it the junta ' s chief arm of law and order as well as repression . Under Ioannides , ESA rose to a force of more than 20 , 000 men . Thousands of the junta ' s political opponents were arrested by the ESA and sent to some of the Aegean ' s most desolate islands , called the prison islands . Many of the allegations of prisoner torture under the Papadopoulos regime involved the ESA , in particular its Special Interrogation Unit ( , tr . " Eidikón Anakritikón Tmíma " ) ( ΕAT or EAT / ESA ) . Use of torture chamber s by ESA during interrogations was reported during the Greek military junta years . Alexandros Panagoulis was one example of a person tortured at the EAT / ESA interrogation cell units . Greek politician Nikos Konstantopoulos is another example . Tagmatarkhis Spyros Moustaklis was left brain damaged and unable to speak after the torture he endured at EAT / ESA . Alarmed at moves Papadopoulos was making towards a transition to democratic rule , loannidis used his position and power as ESA chief to oust him from power . The ESA was disbanded in 1974 by Konstantinos Karamanlis and its leading members involved in torture were court - martial led and sentenced during the Greek junta trials , although many served only token prison terms . Members . Research based on interviews with 21 former ESA members shows that all had been men had been drafted , first into regular military service and then into the ESA . Carried out by Janice T . Gibson & Mika Haritos - Fatouros , the research also showed that recruits underwent series of rigorous treatments and training over a matter of months in order to prepare them psychologically for the task of torturing detainees . Operating doctrine . According to witnesses at the court martial proceedings , ESA ' s operating doctrine was : " Friend or cripple exits he who enters here " Buildings . In Athens , the headquarters of the Special Interrogation Sections of the Military Police ( EAT - ESA ) was in a building which now houses the " Eleftherios K . Venizelos " Museum at Eleftherias Park , Vassilissis Sofias Avenue .