Greek police unearth assassination pistol

Greek police have found the pistol used by the terror group November 17 to assassinate the British military attache two years ago.

The .45 weapon was also used to kill six others, including a leading Greek politician said police in Athens.

Spokesman Lefteris Ekonomou said authorities were also questioning two brothers of a suspected November 17 terrorist.

Greek authorities, aided by anti-terrorism officers from Scotland Yard, have made a number of significant breakthroughs in their hunt for Europe’s most elusive terrorist group in recent weeks.

Their first came on June 29, when 40-year-old religious icon painter Savas Xiros was seriously injured in the busy port of Piraeus by a bomb he was allegedly carrying.

His injury led police to the discovery of two Athens apartments used by November 17 as hide-outs and warehouses for most of their weapons – including dozens of anti-tank rockets used in attacks over the past 27 years.

Ekonomou identified one of the weapons as a .45 calibre pistol used by November 17 in seven assassinations from 1980 to June 2000, when it killed its last victim, British military attache Brigadier Stephen Saunders as he drove to work in Athens.

The group has used two such weapons as signature guns in its attacks.

November 17 has claimed responsibility for 22 killings – including those of four American officials – since it first appeared with the 1975 slaying of Richard Welch, the CIA’s Athens station chief.

The group, which blends extreme left-wing politics with nationalism, is named after the day of a 1973 student uprising against the military dictatorship then ruling Greece.

Ekonomou said the gun used to shoot Brigadier Saunders was first used in January 1980 to kill a deputy riot squad chief.

It was also used in September 1989 to kill Pavlos Bakoyiannis, a conservative deputy and son-in-law of former Premier Constatine Mitsotakis.

His widow, conservative deputy Dora Bakoyiannis, is a leading candidate to become mayor of Athens in next October’s municipal elections.

Police have launched a nationwide manhunt for another suspected member of November 17 – 44-year-old beekeeper Dimitris Koufodinas, who is believed to be the current companion of Xiros’ former wife.

Police have identified Koufodinas as the man who rented the hide-out where the .45 gun was found.

In another development, police for the first time named three people being questioned in the case.

They were identified as Xiros’ brothers Christodoulos Xiros, 44, who makes musical instruments, and Vassilis Xiros, 30, a mechanic, as well as Dionissis Georgiakis, 26.

Ekonomou said “they were brought in for questioning in relation with the activities of the terrorist organization November 17.”

Xiros has a total of 10 siblings. Vasilis Xiros and Georgiakis were flown to Athens from the northern port of Thessaloniki on a military transport plane. Anti-terrorist police arrested Christodoulos Xiros while he was waiting to see his injured brother in hospital.

Police in Thessaloniki also questioned and released another two of Xiros’ brothers. They have also questioned and released Xiros’ former wife, Angeliki Sotiropoulou, who had been living until recently with Koufodinas.

Xiros’ current partner, Prudencia Alicia Romero Cortes, 42, a make-up artist from Majorca, was also questioned and released. She is currently living with Sotiropoulou.