Alleged Greek terror leader denies it all

The alleged leader of Greece’s November 17 terror group has pleaded not guilty to masterminding a series of killings, and tried to discredit the confessions of those who implicated him.

Alexandros Giotopoulos, 58, denied being involved in multiple murders, attempted murders, and a series of bombings and armed robberies carried out by the shadowy left-wing guerillas.

He faces life in jail if convicted. Since emerging in 1975, November 17 he has been accused of killing more than 20 diplomats and businessmen.

Their most recent victim was a British military attache - Brigadier Stephen Saunders - who was gunned down as he drove to work in Athens in June 2000.

His death brought a Scotland Yard team to Athens. The British detectives and the late Brigadier’s wife Heather are widely credited with sparking Greek efforts which have led to a string of recent arrests.

But the alleged ‘‘ideological’’ leader of the terrorists, Giotopoulos, said the confessions made by nine of the ten other men in custody were ‘‘embellished with many lies and inaccuracies’’.

Giotopoulos was arrested a week ago on an eastern Aegean island where he has a holiday home.

During his youth, the Paris-born Giotopoulos was part of the left-wing movement that fuelled France’s May 1968 student revolt.

Greek authorities have long suspected November 17’s founders were active in France during that period, when Greek students in Paris began organising attacks against Greece’s 1967-74 military dictatorship.

November 17 is named after the date in 1973 when the junta crushed a student uprising in Athens.

Giotopoulos disappeared shortly after the fall of the dictatorship and apparently lived under an assumed name until his arrest.

After years of failing to crack the group, Greek police got their big break on June 29, when 40-year-old painter Savas Xiros was seriously injured in a botched bombing.

His capture led to the arrest of his two brothers and eight other people. Police also found November 17 hide-outs and a weapons cache.

Both of Xiros’ brothers, 44-year-old Christodoulos and Vassilis, 30, appear to have made confessions soon after being detained.

Police said those arrested so far appear to have been the group’s ‘‘operational team’’ - men who carried out orders and struck whichever target they were ordered to, sometimes without even knowing the name of the person they were about to kill.

In testimony widely leaked to the Greek media, they said they referred to firearms as ‘‘pens,’’ bombs as ‘‘baskets,’’ and money as ‘‘lettuce,’’ and described details of scores of bomb attacks, bank robberies and assassinations.

The suspects said attacks typically involved between four and eight people and that they used stolen - or ‘‘confiscated’’ - vehicles and even public transport to get away after a shooting or bombing.

Wigs, glasses and other disguises were also used, they said, and the gunmen chose churches, coffee shops and train stations for public meetings.

Code names used by the group members included ‘‘the tall man,’’ ‘‘Luke,’’ and ‘‘the Count’’.

Vassilis Xiros was quoted describing how he had been recruited. ‘‘We had some discussions about the rich, who drink our blood, and the Americans,’’ he said. ‘‘To try me out, I had to put a bomb under a car.’’

Police are still searching for people believed to have started November 17 with Giotopoulos.

Giotopoulos was yesterday arraigned with two other suspects: Vassilis Tzortzatos, who confessed to participating in eight killings and seven attempted murders, and Theologos Psaradelis, charged with two armed robberies. Three other men were arraigned over the weekend.

Christodoulos Xiros reportedly told authorities he had started to have doubts about the group’s actions.

‘‘I believed the organisation did the right thing and was pushing the world towards a change. I gradually realised nothing was happening in this direction, but rather in the opposite,’’ he said in comments leaked to the Greek media.