Youngest Xeros ‘had to resist’
The youngest of the three Xeros brothers on trial for November 17 membership yesterday admitted «some connection» with the far-left terror group in his testimony, which was broken short after lawyers representing group victims accused him of «reading a proclamation.» Vassilis Xeros, 31, was the sixth of the 19 suspects to testify. His eldest brother, Savvas, refused to, while Christodoulos Xeros’s testimony was laced with expletives. Reading a prepared text, Vassilis Xeros explained his association with N17 saying: «I felt the state mechanism slowly imprisoning me… I had to resist.» After lawyer Alexandros Lykourezos accused him of «reading a text [dictated by others] that he does not understand,» the suspect refused to continue. The court proceeded to reject a defense plea for Xeros’s initial confession, which he later retracted, to be disregarded. Earlier, alleged chief N17 hit man Dimitris Koufodinas claimed co-defendant Patroklos Tselentis, who has admitted to group membership and implicated other defendants, made false accusations and distorted N17’s aims under a deal with the police.
