Greek Court Convicts Terror Cell Members
A Greek anti-terrorism court on Monday convicted 16 members of the November 17 terrorist cell, including its leader, for their roles in a nearly 30-year killing spree that claimed U.S. and British diplomats, among others.
The rulings bring to a close one of the last trials in Europe against militant groups that took shape during the 1970s. The crackdown on November 17 was relief to authorities planning security for the Aug. 13-29 Olympics.
Following a nine-month trial in a bunker-like prison courtroom, the three judges on Monday issued multiple convictions against Alexandros Giotopoulos, 58, as the mastermind of the group that outwitted authorities for more than a generation.
Among the other 15 men convicted was the group’s main hit man, Dimitris Koufodinas. Four defendants, including the lone woman, were acquitted.
Sentencing is expected later this week. Many of those convicted face multiple life sentences.
Giotopoulos, a 58-year-old French-born academic, steadfastly denied any links to the group. But others freely admitted their roles. Koufodinas told the court he took “political responsibility” for all the group’s actions, which included 23 slayings since the ambush killing of a CIA station chief in 1975.
The convictions were issued during a lengthy procedure to read through the hundreds of charges against the 19 defendants.
The group’s victims include four American envoys, two Turkish diplomats and prominent Greek political and business figures. November 17′s last victim was British defense attache Brig. Stephen Saunders, killed in June 2000.
November 17 was named after the date of a student-led uprising in 1973 which helped topple the 1967-74 military dictatorship. It mixed hard-line Marxism with Greek nationalism.
Its targets included Greek officials linked to the junta, which mercilessly persecuted its leftist opponents. It also struck at military and diplomatic envoys from the United States, which backed the junta and remains an object of scorn by many Greeks.
Greece was for years criticized by the United States and other countries over its inability to crack down on domestic terrorism and arrest members of November 17.
The radical-nationalist group eluded authorities until a botched bombing last year touched off a series of arrests.
Lawyers for slain family members have asked the court to hand down harsh sentences.
Heather Saunders, widow of the slain British defense attache, in sobbing testimony early this year denounced her husband’s alleged killers as “mad men” who should not be set free.