Verdicts due in Greece terror trial
A special court was to pass verdicts today in the trial of five suspected Greek terrorists accused of mounting a 20-year bombing campaign against domestic and American targets.
The alleged members of the far-left group Revolutionary Popular Struggle, or ELA, could receive maximum sentences of life in prison if convicted – which was considered extremely unlikely.
The non-jury trial began eight months ago and has been held inside a high-security prison near Athens.
The five suspects – four men and one woman whose ages range from 50 to 64 - include a village mayor, two civil engineers and two private-sector employees. They were all released on bail during the trial and are likely to escape maximum penalties even if they are convicted.
Judge Elizabeth Brilli, presiding over a three-member panel, said “limited evidence” had been presented during the trial, an admission also made by prosecutors. Her comments have indicated the suspects could be acquitted of more serious charges.
The five were arrested during a security crackdown ahead of this summer’s Olympic Games. Many of their alleged crimes have exceeded Greece’s statute of limitations.
The trial has widely been regarded as closing a chapter on three decades of violence that followed a 1967-74 military dictatorship that received support from the United States.
In the 20 years until it disbanded in 1995, ELA was blamed for killing a police officer and a supreme court prosecutor. It was also held responsible for scores of murder attempts and bombings.
More than 30 attacks were aimed at American targets, mostly in the early 1980s, including the bombing of the US ambassador’s residence and embassy vehicles as well as branches of American banks and companies.
Only one suspect, ELA’s alleged leader Christos Tsigaridas, 64, has admitted involvement in the group and accepted “moral responsibility” for its actions.
The other four – Angeletos Kanas, Costas Agapiou, Irene Athanasaki and Michalis Kassimis – all deny any connection with the group, and say they were targeted for prosecution because of their political beliefs.
The group also bombed Greek police buses, tax offices and in 1988 bombed two government offices to protest high levels of air pollution in the capital.
ELA was seen as the forerunner of several militant organisations, including the far deadlier November 17 organisation, blamed for 23 killings from 1975 until it was broken up in 2002.
ELA and November 17 were for years included on the US State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations
