British attache killer confesses
He is one of three men who have admitted to a series of bombings and killings, including those of three American officials.
Announcing a major breakthrough, Police Chief Fotis Nassiakos also said a leader of Europe’s most elusive terrorist group was in custody.
Police identified the three men as Christodoulos Xiros, 44, who makes musical instruments, his brother Vassilis, 30, a mechanic, and Dionissis Georgiakis, 26.
They said Vassilis Xiros has confessed to participating in the assassination of British Defence Attache Brigadier Stephen Saunders in June 2000 and the 1997 killing of Greek-British businessman Constantinos Peratikos.
Brigadier Saunders was killed by motorcycle gunmen as he drove to work at the British embassy in Athens.
Mr Nassiakos said the brothers had confessed to dozens of killings, bomb attacks and robberies between 1984 and 2001. The third man confessed to a bomb attack and a robbery.
Mr Nassiakos also announced that a 58-year-old leader of Europe’s most secretive terrorist group was in custody after being snatched by police special forces from the eastern Aegean island of Lipsi on Wednesday.
His fingerprints matched prints found in a November 17 hideout and weapons cache earlier this month.
Mr Nassiakos identified the man as Paris-born Alexandros Giotopoulos, who authorities believe is one of the main leaders of the rabidly anti-American terror group. Giotopoulos had been living under the assumed name Michalis Economou. Believed to have been active in the Paris-based student opposition to the military dictatorship which ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974, he now lived in France and in Greece with a French woman.
The capture and confessions are a major breakthrough for Greek police, who had failed to make any arrests since the group first appeared in 1975 with the assassination of Richard Welch, the CIA’s station chief in Athens. November 17 has claimed responsibility for 22 killings and dozens of bomb and rocket attacks.
Under unprecedented security measures, the three alleged members were transferred from police headquarters in Athens to court to be formally charged. Police began cracking November 17 when another Xiros brother, 40-year-old religious icon painter Savas, was severely injured when a bomb he was allegedly carrying exploded. He remains under heavy guard in hospital but has not been formally arrested or charged.
