Michalis Karaolis was born on 13 February 1933 in
Palaichori Oreinis, Cyprus. He finished primary school in Palaichori and
The English School in Nicosia. He worked as a tax clerk. During the 1955–59 national uprising against the British, many of
APOEL's athletes and members of the club were active members of
EOKA. The most outstanding example being the club's track and field athlete Michalis Karaolis. appealed to
Queen Elizabeth for Michalis Karaolis He was a member of
EOKA long before 1955 in a group headed by
Polycarpos Giorkatzis. On 28 August 1955, he carried out the public execution of P.C. Michael Poullis, a Cypriot
police officer, of the Special Branch who had been spying on the
Nicosia groups of EOKA and interfering with their work. The assassination was carried out in broad daylight whilst P.C. Poullis was on duty at an
AKEL meeting at the
Ledra Palace. Karaolis was captured on his way to meet
Grigoris Afxentiou's guerrillas in the
Kyrenia mountains, following
General George Grivas' orders.
Field Marshal Harding chose to announce Karaolis' death sentence on
28 October, an important Greek national holiday marking the refusal of Greece to surrender to the
Axis powers in the
Second World War, and that hugely inflamed public feeling. handing out
Albert Camus letter about Caraolis to President
Tassos Papadopoulos ==Execution ==