Charges for N17 ‘leader’

Yotopoulos testifies again today over presence at terrorist executions

Alexandros Yotopoulos, the presumed leader of the November 17 terrorist gang, will give a supplementary deposition today to a prosecutor.

Appeals court prosecutor Leonidas Zervobeakos decided to interrogate Yotopoulos again after Savvas Xeros, a self-confessed November 17 member, told the prosecutor on Sunday that Yotopoulos had been present at the scene of three lethal terrorist attacks: the murders of Brigadier-General Stephen Saunders, the UK military attach�, on June 8, 2000, and shipowner Costas Peratikos, on May 28, 1997, as well as the unsuccessful rocket attack against Finance Minister Ioannis Palaiokrassas, on July 14, 1992, where shrapnel killed bystander Athanassios Axarlian.

Yotopoulos, in contrast to the majority of the 15 arrested suspects, has denied any involvement in November 17, and is not expected to be any more forthcoming this time. But the prosecutor will take the opportunity to bring extra charges against him related to his presence at the three crime scenes.

Yotopoulos, who is locked up at the Korydallos prison along with the other prisoners — except the injured Xeros, who is still being treated at Evangelismos hospital — appears calm and haughty toward his captors. The only thing that seems to disturb him is the fact that he cannot walk alongside his fellow inmates in the prison yard. Two other presumed leading members of November 17, Pavlos Serifis and Nikos Papanastassiou, who have been implicated from its early stages according to authorities, are also obliged to take their daily walks alone.

Authorities are still looking for the only identified November 17 member, Dimitris Koufodinas, who is still at large. Police sources were saying on Wednesday that they still believe he is hiding somewhere in the area of Attica and that they have narrowed down the list of his possible hideouts. Sources also said he is being assisted by people that used to belong to the Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA), another terrorist group with significant cross-membership with November 17, but which has been inactive since 1995.

Police are also seeking people they are calling the “co-founders” of November 17. It is said that most of them abandoned terrorism early on in the group’s activities. If so, the statute of limitations — 20 years for murder, 15 for lesser felonies — applies to most of them. But they are still likely to be interrogated, as they might provide useful clues about terrorist operations.