Crackdown on urban guerrilla groups
Eight suspects have been taken into custody for questioning in Athens police operation
The police’s Anti-Terrorism Division launched raids in different parts of Athens on Tuesday that were most likely linked to a parcel bomb that was sent to the prosecutor of the Appeal Court of Thessaloniki earlier in the month.
The prosecutor, who is the president of the Court of Appeal and recipient of the envelope containing the explosives, had handled the case of one of the eight people police rounded up for questioning on Tuesday.
The fingerprints of the eight suspects were being examined later Tuesday to see if they match the ones found on the envelope with the explosives, which did not detonate.
The police operation included searches of 10 homes. Searches were also carried out in the cells of three prisoners serving prison sentences for robbery.
According to reports, the raids are part of a wider investigation into three bomb attacks since the summer of 2023 which were claimed by a group calling itself the “Revenge Partnership.”
The first of these involved a grenade attack against an officer who works at Korydallos Prison in Haidari in July.
In November, amid the revelations about the static problems of the metal roof of the Olympic Stadium, designed by Santiago Calatrava, members of the same group had carried out an attack on the offices of a construction company in Kifissia. “The reason the attack took place is to target the corrupt role of construction companies,” said the group in an online post. The third attack was the detonation in late January of a bomb at a National Bank of Greece branch in Petralona. In a post claiming responsibility, the perpetrators had dedicated their action to an imprisoned anarchist comrade, who, as they wrote, had started his urban guerrilla activities by targeting the bank.
In the intervening period to date, the Anti-Terrorist Division has reportedly gathered evidence on the identity of individuals involved in the three attacks, making arrests and detentions.
In fact, one of the three inmates whose cells were searched on Tuesday was the anarchist in whose name the bombing of the Petralona bank was carried out.
He is an anarchist who is serving a multi-year sentence for armed robbery of banks. Between August and September 2021, he was accused of robbing four banks in Metamorfosi, Nea Ionia, Petralona and Mitropoleos Street in the center of Athens together with an accomplice.
