Life Sentences To Terrorists For Terrorist Acts Against Greece

credit - ProtoThema

Five people were convicted with terrorism-related charges on Wednesday in relation to a militant anarchist group which claimed responsibility for a string of bombings over six years. Reports in Athens claim that the same group also fired a rocket-propelled grenade into the US Embassy in Athens.

Two of the suspects, Nikos Maziotis and his wife Panagiota Roupa, were convicted in absentia. (They absconded in 2012 following their release after spending the maximum 18 months in pre-trial detention.)

The court, which convened in a maximum-security Athens prison, sentenced Maziotis, Roupa and Costas Gournas to 25 years in prison, and handed out 7 and 7 1/2-year terms to two more men.

Three other suspects related to the case were apparently acquitted.

Maziotis, Roupa and Gournas have admitted "political responsibility" for actions of the Revolutionary Struggle group, but all the other suspects in this case deny any wrongdoing.

The ruling ended the third major domestic terrorism trial in recent years in Greece, which suffered from extreme left-wing political violence for decades.

Article in Greek - ProtoThema