Greek extremists face life in jail for 30-year spree of killings

FIFTEEN members of the Greek extremist group November 17 were yesterday convicted on charges linked to a 30-year spree of killings including the murder of a British defence attache Brigadier Stephen Saunders in June 2000.

They included ringleader Alexandros Yiotopoulos, 59, who was found guilty yesterday of planning and authorising all the group’s actions and who faces life imprisonment when sentences are handed down next week.

A government spokesman Christos Protopapas welcomed the verdicts, saying “Greece can boast being one of the safest countries in the world” in the run-up to the 2004 Olympic Games.

The November 17 group, which took its name from the date of a student uprising in 1973 against the military junta that ran Greece from 1967 to 1974, had been a thorn in the side of the authorities. November 17 is blamed for dozens of armed robberies, hundreds of bombings and 23 killings since 1975.

After the nine-month trial, four people were cleared of involvement in the group’s actions. They included two of its alleged founding members and the wife of its chief of operations.

In all, the 19 defendants faced a total of over 2,000 charges including 23 murders, among them British military attaché Stephen Saunders in June, 2000.

A 20-year statute of limitations prevented the court from hearing charges of earlier murders, including the killing of the station chief of the CIA in Athens in December 1975.

Yiotopoulos, a French-born economist who worked as a translator, maintained his innocence until the end, saying after the verdict was read out: “The decision is unfounded. I was condemned in advance.”

Aside from Yiotopoulos, five other militants face life imprisonment including the group’s chief of operations, Dimitris Koufontinas, 45, and Savvos Xiros, who was also one of the group’s major hitmen.

The court freed Angeliki Sotiropoulou, 40, the only female defendant; Yiannis Serifis, 65, a well-known trade union activist; Anestis Papanastassiou, a 41-year-old bank clerk and the cousin of alleged founding member Nikos Papanastassiou and Theologos Psaradellis, 60, a Trotskyite activist.

Mr Saunders was shot in his car on June 8, 2000 while driving to work. Two men riding on a motorbike rode up alongside his car and shot him with a revolver and an army rifle.

The court also found Koufontinas, Savvas Xiros and his brother Vassilis Xiros, 31 guilty of the murder of Saunders, for which November 17 claimed responsibility.