Alleged Nov 17 members charged over terrorism

Three suspected members of the November 17 terrorist group have been charged with offences connected to terrorism.

Among the trio is one of the alleged leaders Alexandros Giotopoulos. Seven people are now in custody.

November 17 is accused of killing British defence attache Brigadier Stephen Saunders in June 2000.

A nationwide hunt is continuing for the aging founders and other members of the group, which had acted with impunity for 27 years.

Prime minister Costas Simitis insists there is still a long way to go before terrorism is wiped out in Greece.

Handcuffed and wearing a bulletproof vest, 58-year-old Giotopoulos was taken to an Athens court and charged with a series of murders and attempted murders.

Giotopoulos, who had been living under an assumed name, was arrested in a helicopter swoop on the island of Lipsi on Wednesday. He has denied all the charges.

Police spokesman Lefteris Ekonomou says his fingerprints match those found on a document referring to November 17's assassination of Greek-British businessman Costantinos Peratikos in 1997.

The text was found in one of two Athens apartments which November 17 had been using as hide-out and to store weapons.

All those in custody were previously believed above suspicion: three brothers from a Greek Orthodox priest's extended family, one of their friends, an electrician and a retired printer.