An Athens academic detained by US officials last week for a grilling on the November 17 terrorist group was held in handcuffs and fetters for hours at a New York airport without being told why, or being charged, university authorities said.

In his report to Greece’s consul in New York, made public yesterday by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) staff union, NTUA mathematics professor Eugenios Angelopoulos was held for five-and-a-half hours at JFK Airport last Wednesday after arriving for a philosophy conference.

“I was twice fingerprinted, photographed and handcuffed,” the report quoted him saying. “I was kept waiting for two hours with fetters and chains on my legs.” Officials allegedly said he had no legal rights under US law, as officially he was not on US territory. Eventually he was told the FBI wanted to see him. When he spoke to FBI officials, the professor says he was given to understand that he would be paid to name N17 members. “I told them I had nothing for sale,” he said. Angelopoulos knew N17’s alleged mastermind in Paris during the 1960s.