N17 suspect confesses

Kondylis admits involvement in Turk diplomat’s murder, embassy attack

A black jeep enters the Athens Appeals Court’s basement yesterday, taking suspected November 17 member Sotiris Kondylis, 41, to prosecutor Kyriakos Karoutsos. Kondylis confessed to his involvement in a robbery and four attacks by November 17 between July 1990 and February 1996 and was charged with six felonies, including membership of a criminal organization. The 15th suspect in custody, he is to testify before an investigating judge tomorrow and is likely to be kept in pre-trial detention.

The confession by suspected November 17 member Sotiris Kondylis yesterday, one day after his arrest in Athens, brought to an end the first phase of the police investigation. Almost all of the terrorist group's operational arm is in custody, with the exception of senior operative Dimitris Koufodinas, who is still at large.

Kondylis, code-named «Aris,» is the 15th suspect arrested over the past month. He was charged with six felonies, including involvement in the murder of Turkish diplomat Omer Sipahioglou in Athens on July 4, 1994. He also confessed to involvement in a robbery at the Ergobank in Peristeri in 1990, a shootout with police in Sepolia in 1991 and the rocket attack on the US Embassy in 1996 (in which the missile hit a parking lot wall).

Kondylis, sources said, provided valuable information on the Sipahioglou and US Embassy attacks that none of the other 12 who have confessed have mentioned. (Only the group's alleged leader, Alexandros Yotopoulos, and alleged senior operative Nikos Papanastasiou have not admitted to being part of November 17.)

«Now begins the difficult phase,» a senior Public Order Ministry official noted yesterday. This will involve the investigation into what contacts November 17 might have had with other organizations and criminal interests. In their probe, the authorities will focus on the broad circle of acquaintances that Yotopoulos had. They also want to question Koufodinas, who is believed to be armed and dangerous, at all costs as they believe he will be a key source of information regarding the gang's activities. If they have no success over the weekend, police will present more photographs of Koufodinas as well as computer-generated pictures of what he might look like in a range of possible disguises. They believe that despite his being on the run he is still in Greece.

Kondylis, a beer factory worker and unionist who was active in extreme left-wing activities, is believed to have had close ties with Koufodinas but to have kept his distance from most other members of the gang. Police had trailed him for four days after locating him in case he was contacted by Koufodinas. Kondylis was charged yesterday and will appear before investigating judge Leonidas Zervobeakos tomorrow.

Thirteen other alleged members of the gang that killed 23 people since 1975 are in pretrial detention. One alleged member is recovering in hospital from wounds received in an abortive bomb attack.