N17 hearings to start March 3
The trial of the 17 men and one woman accused of participation in the November 17 left-wing terrorist group will start on March 3, in a specially built prison courtroom, a senior judge announced yesterday. Meanwhile, police sources said some 15 more terrorism suspects, linked with N17 and another three smaller groups, are expected to be arrested in the days leading up to the trial. The trial date was officially announced by the head of the Appeals Court Prosecutors’ department, Petros Verrios. The 18 suspects – 17 of whom are detained pending trial in Athens’s Korydallos Prison – will receive summonses today, while some 330 witnesses will be called to testify at the trial, which is expected to take four or five months. The proceedings will be held in a newly built hall inside the Korydallos women’s wing, where most of the suspects are being held, which is now ready and only lacks electronics installations. There will be seating for 100 spectators – surviving targets and relatives of people assassinated by N17 – and 75 defense lawyers as well as attorneys appointed by relatives of victims who have lodged civil suits against the suspects. About 100 journalists are expected to be given accreditation, and will observe the trial by video link from an adjacent media center. The 18 will be tried by a three-judge criminal court. The judges and the prosecutor will be selected by lot from among 30 appeals court presidents and 10 prosecutors chosen during a session of appeals court judges and prosecutors in mid-January. Yesterday, police sources told Kathimerini that another two N17 suspects, along with the main core of the Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA), May 1 and Revolutionary Cells groups – some 15 people – have been identified and will be arrested.
