Greek terror suspect says he murdered British envoy

Foreign Staff. The Scotsman (Edinburgh) 19 July 2002, p. 10

A SUSPECTED member of the Greek terrorist group November 17 has confessed to the murder of a British military attach.

Vassilis Xiros is one of three brothers who allegedly acted as executioners in 22 killings of which the June 2000 assassination of Brigadier Stephen Saunders was the last.

British officials yesterday paid tribute to the brigadier's widow, Heather Saunders, for her gritty commitment to the hunt for her husband's killers.

"There is no doubt that Heather Saunders' commitment to the investigation and her determination in finding her husband's killers has had a great impact on the public here," said a spokesman for the British embassy in Athens.

Greek police claimed yesterday to have smashed the November 17 group with the arrest of a mathematics professor who is believed to be its mastermind.

It appeared to be a major blow against domestic terror operations and a huge relief for organisers of the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

The country's police chief, Fotis Nassiakos, said seven suspected November 17 members were in custody.

Three members of the group "admitted their acts and described in detail the way these were committed", he said, releasing a list of 42 crimes including bank robberies, bombings, and killings. They were expected to be charged in court yesterday.

Vassilis Xiros, 30, a mechanic, and his brother Christodoulos, 44, a musical instrument maker, have confessed to numerous killings, police said.

They were arrested after a third brother, Savas, 40, a religious icon painter, was badly injured when a bomb he was carrying exploded. He has not yet been charged.

November 17 was named for the date in 1973 when a military junta quashed a student uprising in Greece, and took power in a dictatorship that was to last seven years.

In 1975, November 17 made headlines with the killing of the CIA's Athens station chief. It went on to claim 22 killings - including the murders of four US officials, two Turkish diplomats and Greek businessmen and politicians - and dozens of bomb and rocket attacks. It championed a radical leftist, anti-American, anti-NATO agenda.

US officials hinted the country's governing Socialist party had sheltered the group, because of its ties to left-wing resistance to the Colonels' rule. November 17 played to a strong streak of anti- American sentiment bedded in anger over US support for the junta.

"This will clear a cloud that has been hanging over Greece ... This is a very great success for Greece and the government," said the deputy foreign minister, Yannis Magriotis.

The suspects are portrayed as ordinary middle-class Greeks with little or no political involvement. None had criminal records. Two even gave television interviews before their arrest.

The father of the three brothers and six other siblings was a Greek Orthodox priest.

Vassilis Xiros was snatched at the family home in the northern port of Thessaloniki along with the third suspect, a school friend, Dionissis Georgiakis, 26.

Vassilis confessed to the 1997 killing of a Greek-British businessman, Constantinos Peratikos, a rocket attack on the home of the German ambassador in 1999 and Brig Saunders' murder.

November 17 accused Brig Saunders of helping co-ordinate NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia - described by British officials as "utter fantasy", as he was with a UN team in Iraq when the Kosovo campaign began.

He was shot four times, reportedly by two men on a motorbike. No accomplice was identified yesterday. The murder weapon, a .45- calibre pistol, was also used in several other murders.

Christodoulos confessed to a role in fatal attacks from 1984 to 1992 on nine people, including two US military officials - a defence attach, Captain William Nordeen, in 1988, and an air force sergeant, Ronald Stewart, in 1991.

Georgiakis confessed to a bomb attack and a robbery.

November 17's suspected leader was named as Alexandros Giotopoulos, 55, a professor at a "European university".

He was detained on the remote Aegean island of Lipsi, where he has a holiday home, and was flown to Athens. An anti-terrorism squad arrived on the island using a fire brigade helicopter as cover.

http://www.scotsman.com/greek-terror-1-1811581