Three central Athens metro stations ordered closed from 4 p.m.

The downtown Athens metro stations of Panepistimio, Monastiraki and Evangelismos will be closed at 4 p.m. on Friday on the orders of the Greek police.

The station closure was ordered to take place ahead of a 5 p.m. protest rally planned outside Athens University on Panepistimiou Street in support of jailed November 17 terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas.

The November 17 assassin has been on hunger strike for several weeks in demand that he be transferred to the capital's Korydallos Prison from a high-security facility in Domokos, central Greece.

Friday afternoon's rally is being planned in defiance of a police ban on all public gatherings of more than 100 people, imposed earlier his week for "health reasons."