He was born on 2 September 1942 in
Amyntaio,
Florina. He is a first cousin of
Dimitra Liani and nephew of the professor and minister
Georgios Lianis and lieutenant general Konstantinos Lianis. He studied in the Department of Chemistry of the
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In his younger years he was a football player for
G.S. Iraklis in the
Super League. He was a main witness in the trial of the perpetrators of the
junta submitting important documents and recorded talks he had acquired, with evidence against
Georgios Papadopoulos,
Ioannis Ladas and
Dimitrios Ioannidis. He was elected member of parliament of Florina with
PASOK in June 1989 and reelected in November 1989, 1990, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2007 and 2009. He served as Deputy Minister of Sport in the Ministry of Culture during 1993 – 1996 and 2002 – 2004. On 14 June 2011 he left the parliamentary group of PASOK, refusing to vote the medium-term consolidation program for the Greek economy. == References ==