Suspected terror leader arrainged as Greeks arrest 11th suspect
ATHENS, Greece (AP) – A 58-year-old Paris-born Greek pleaded innocent Tuesday to multiple murder charges arising out of his alleged creation and leadership of November 17, the left-wing terror group that assassinated 23 people – including four American officials – over nearly three decades. After a 30-minute, closed door arraignment, Alexandros Giotopoulos was returned to jail to await trial. No date was set. His lawyer, Yiannis Rahiotis, said Giotopoulos “rejects the accusation” against him, which could result in a life prison term.
Police claim other suspected members of November 17 have identified Giotopoulos as the group’s leader and that they found evidence linking Giotopoulos to a November 17 weapons cache.
Rahiotis sought to discredit the confessions and questioned the motives of the men who made them, claiming there were “embellished with a few code names and many lies and inaccuracies.”
“I think every democratic citizen must be highly suspicious in front of spontaneous confessions about dozens of actions,” Rahiotis said.
Giotopoulos lived under an assumed name, had no job and was married to a French woman who was a retired teacher. He was arrested a week ago on an eastern Aegean island where he maintained a holiday home.
During younger days in France, Giotopoulos was part of the leftist movement that fueled the country’s May 1968 student revolt. Greek authorities had long suspected November 17’s founders were active in France during those chaotic days. As a student, police said, Gioto-poulos adopted many of the teachings of his father, Dimitris, a 1930s communist theoretician, and associate of Leon Trotsky – who founded the Soviet Union along with Vladimir Lenin.
Since its 1975 assassination of the CIA station chief in Athens, November 17 killed 23 people, including four American officials, two Turkish diplomats, numerous Greek businessmen and a politician. Their last victim was British military attache Brig. Stephen Saunders in June 2000.
Police also blame the group for dozens of bombings, rocket attacks and bank robberies.
The extreme leftist group said it targeted Americans and their allies because of Washington’s backing of the oppressive 1967-74 military dictatorship. November 17 is named for the day in 1973 that the junta crushed a student uprising.
Giotopoulos was arraigned alongside two other suspects: Vassilis Tzortzatos, who confessed to participating in eight killings and seven attempted murders, and Theologos Psaradelis, charged with two armed robberies. Three other men were arraigned over the weekend.
Tzortzatos’ lawyers claimed their client had rejected his past.
“Participation in a terrorist organization is nothing other than the transformation of a vision into delirium,” said lawyer Costas Kourkoulos. “Based on this delirium, our client believed wrongly that he was participating in a political activity at the time.”
Authorities are searching for at least four more people, including other of the group’s aging founders.
The latest arrest came in the northern port of Thessaloniki, when schoolteacher Costas Tellios, 37, turned himself in after news reports that his name had been given to police by another suspect.
Police said he admitted to being a member of the group.
After years of failing to crack the group, police penetrated November 17 on June 29, when 40-year-old religious icon painter Savas Xiros was seriously injured in a botched bombing. His deposition and clues led to the arrest of his two brothers and the discovery of November 17 hide-outs and a weapons cache.