| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| ’Terror gang’ on trial in Athens |
| 2003-03-04 |
| Edited for length from the Guardian. And notice the quote marks on the title. The swarmy writer apparently doesn't think the Nov. 17th gang is a real terrorist group. At 9.15am yesterday 18 men, and a stony-faced woman, filed into a courtroom erected in Athens' maximum security prison. By 9.20am, this curious group - some suited and clean-shaven, others bearded and in casual sportswear - were seated behind a bulletproof pane, looking up at a panel of judges behind a wooden bench. To their left and right sat an array of lawyers; to their rear the widow of a murdered British soldier-diplomat, the widowed mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyianni, and several hundred other men and women whose lives had allegedly been ruined by this ragged band. This was the moment Greeks had awaited for years - an event most believed they would never live to see. Nearly 30 years after the leaders of Greece's hated military dictatorship were tried in the same bunker-like chamber, the trial of November 17 — the Marxist-Leninist terrorist group born out of the resistance movement — had finally begun. Seems like a fitting place for the trial. At 9.35am, Greece's "trial of the century" kicked off with Dimitris Margaritis, its bespectacled presiding judge, promising a "fair, democratic and humane hearing". An almost palpable surge of excitement charged through the court room. Blamed for more than 100 bombings, a string of armed robberies and 23 cold-blooded murders, no other group in the country's tumultuous history was as ruthless, impenetrable or as seemingly invincible as November 17. Unlike Italy's Red Brigades or Germany's Baader-Meinhof group, the band of self-styled "Robin Hoods" managed to outwit the combined Greek, US and British counter-terrorist experts. Aided by local police incompetence, it acted with impunity, targeting US diplomatic and military personnel, supporters of the Colonels' regime, Greek business tycoons, Turkish embassy staff and, in its last attack in June 2000, Brigadier Stephen Saunders, the British military attache in Athens. The ability to elude detection and arrest partly explains the extraordinary mystique that surrounded the group by the time one of its hitmen was captured in a botched bomb attack which, in turn, ignited a rush of arrests last summer. For years many had marvelled at how the gang — which took its name from the date of the famed 1973 student uprising against the dictatorship — not only survived but survived long enough to taunt the police and goad the crowds. Before the appearance of al-Qaida, successive US state departments had labelled the revolutionaries as the most dangerous terrorist organisation operating in the west. Yesterday, as more than 50 flak-jacketed police watched over the courtroom, Greek authorities appeared acutely aware that the hearing offered them the opportunity to redeem their reputation. The trial is expected to take at least six months. Some 333 people are lined up to testify for the prosecution and 70 for the defence - including, if he has his way, Carlos the Jackal who collaborated with the group in the 80s. There's a good character witness. All bar three of the suspects — not least Alexandros Giotopoulos, November 17's alleged French-born mastermind — of the accused have, at some point, admitted membership of the gang in the past six months. Yesterday, the urbane white-haired former academic, who faces more than 1,000 charges but insists he has been set up by "the secret services of America and Britain", sat languidly in the dock, flashing smiles at long-legged female journalists and his French wife. "Lies! All lies!" Mr Giotopoulos' reserved demeanour was in stark contrast to Dimitris Koufondinas, the group's chief assassin who has assumed "political responsibility" for all the murders, including that of Brig Saunders whom he shot dead as the diplomat drove to work. "I did it! Yeah, it was me, but I had reasons! Hey -- what are you doing with that intravenous catheter and tubing?" On Sunday, the self-avowed assassin likened himself and his comrades to the "heroes" of the Greek war of independence who fought against the Ottoman Turks in 1821. "I'm like Zorba except that I can't sing, and rooftops make me dizzy!" Amid scenes of chaos as lawyers indulged in heated debate with the bench, the lanky beekeeper defiantly stood up to denounce the level of security. "I want to know whether all of this was inspired by the Americans?" he said. "And so what if it is?" Judge Margaritis shot back. Bravo. The exchange gave a taste of what is likely to come, diplomats said. "So far it doesn't feel like a murder trial," said Stephanie Tsandis, the daughter of a US naval officer killed by the group in 1990. "There was so much noise, even the judge compared it to an agora [market]." It is a measure of the Greek public's profound disappointment in those now linked with November 17, that as the trial opened many were still asking "who the real powers" were behind the group. They were a bunch of thugs. What did you expect, revolutionaries? But the same could not be said of the families of the victims — for decades perceived by unsympathetic Greeks to be deserving of their pain. Yes, remind me again why we're still allied to these clowns? Few had waited longer for yesterday than them. And like Mrs Saunders and Mrs Bakoyianni, whose husband was murdered by the group, few now want closure as much. But unlike the hundreds who yesterday squeezed into the chamber to catch a glimpse of the accused, most said they could not bear to even make eye contact with the curious group in the dock. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 My Big Fat Greek Murder Trial. Well, someone had to say it. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2003-03-04 13:16:20 |
| #2 Amen--What Frank G said. I wonder if the US should send Delta Force to the Athen's Olympics as security for our athletes, or maybe the 82nd Airborne Division..... |
| Posted by: Rifle308 2003-03-04 08:50:03 |
| #1 There's been a blind eye turned toward these groups in Greece, and a hint of official - if not assistance- then at least tolerance. If the Sept 11th attacks hadn't happened, coinciding with the coming Athens Olympics, I wonder whether this group would've been actually rolled up? A large measure of how serious the Greeks really are will be whether they pursue if there were any government ties and assistance |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-03-04 08:36:03 |