Prosecutor: German guerrilla suspect should be released
A prosecutor recommended on Monday that a German woman accused of being a member of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire urban guerrilla group should be released from custody as there is no evidence linking her to the organization.
The prosecutor?s proposal to the magistrate came on the same day that the first witnesses began giving evidence in the trial of 13 suspected members of the terrorist group, which is alleged to have carried out a series of bloodless bombings.
Faye Marie Meyer was arrested in early January after allegedly being spotted with some of the suspected members of the group, but prosecutor Dimitris Zimianatis said that there does not appear to be any reason to keep the 27-year-old in custody as she does not seem to be linked to any terrorist activity.
Meyer has already threatened legal action against the police and the media after officers let it be known that she was the daughter of German woman suspected to be a former terrorist, an accusation that proved to be false.
In the special courtroom at Korydallos Prison, where the nine suspected members of Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire (four are being tried in absentia) the defense lawyers accused the three police officers giving testimony of not collecting evidence relating to the case properly.
One of the policemen described how he picked up with his bare hands a rubbish bag thrown by one of the suspects into a dumpster, then searched it before putting it in the boot of his car and taking it to his office. ?Is that how you collect evidence?? lawyer Marina Ralli asked the policeman. ?I had orders,? he responded. ?They asked me to get the bag.?
The three officers are the first witnesses in the case, which was meant to start at the beginning of the year but was held up by lengthy legal wrangles. The policemen described how they monitored a house in Halandri, northeastern Athens, which is thought to have been one of the properties used by the group to construct its bombs, which were often placed in cooking pots.
