Posted on 07/20/2002 2:46:37 PM PDT by knighthawk
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The alleged leader of Greece's November 17 terrorist group declared his innocence Saturday, police and court officials said, a day after he was charged with murdering at least 13 people, including American officials, in terror attacks dating back to the 1980s.
Police, however, said other suspected members of the elusive terror band had confessed to participating in bombings, robberies and assassinations and identified Alexandros Giotopoulos, 58, as the leader of November 17.
In handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, Giotopoulos was led before a public prosecutor on Friday to hear the charges that he was involved in the bloody attacks which also killed Turkish and British officials.
He was indicted after being captured Wednesday on the eastern Aegean island of Lispsi where he had a vacation home. Giotopoulos was swept up after police began penetrating the extreme leftist terror group under heavy pressure from the international community in advance of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Police spokesman Lefteris Ekonomou said Giotopoulos' fingerprints and incriminating notes in his handwriting were found at one of two Athens apartments used by November 17 to store weapons, including dozens of anti-tank rockets stolen from an army base.
His French wife, retired high school teacher Marie Therese Peynaud, has visited Giotopoulos twice since he was arrested. He will be arraigned on Wednesday.
Peynaud was questioned and released shortly after Giotopoulos, who had been living under an assumed name for years. She refused to talk to reporters as she left police headquarters after visiting her husband Saturday.
A total of seven alleged members of November 17 are in custody and a nationwide manhunt continues for other aging founders and other members of the group, who had avoided arrest for 27 years.
All those in custody were previously believed above suspicion — three brothers from a Greek Orthodox priest's large family, one of their friends, an electrician and a retired printer.
Three of them have confessed to a variety of attacks, including the killings of U.S. defense attache Capt. William Nordeen in June 1988; U.S. Air Force Sgt. Ronald O. Stewart in March 1991; and British defense attache Brig. Stephen Saunders in June 2000.
Rev. Triandafyllos Xiros, the father of three of the suspects, praised police Saturday and said he was glad his prayers for the truth had been answered, even if his own children were implicated.
``All these days I have been praying ... for God to reveal the truth, for the guilty ones to be revealed. God has done his miracle,'' Xiros said. ``The police did their job well. And the truth was revealed, and the guilty ones were revealed. And I am happy for this, even if my own children were involved. Whoever did something must pay.''
Britain's Foreign Office has welcomed the arrests, a spokesman describing the news as ``very positive and significant.''
Britain's Scotland Yard joined efforts to crack the group after Saunders' death, while the United States has been working on the November 17 case for decades.
The breakthrough came on June 29, when 40-year-old religious icon painter Savas Xiros was injured in a botched bomb attack.
Clues found near the site of the explosion led police to November 17 hide-outs and to the arrest of Xiros' brothers, 44-year-old Christodoulos and Vassilis, 30, who have confessed to numerous attacks, authorities said.
Police later arrested Giotopoulos, 48-year-old electrician Vassilis Tzortzatos and retired printer Theologos Psaradelis, 59.
November 17 first appeared with the 1975 assassination of Richard Welch, the CIA station chief in Athens. It has claimed responsibility for 22 killings and has been blamed by authorities for the death of a police officer in a 1984 robbery.
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