NEWS

ND, prominent businessmen among potential terror targets

Police said on Thursday that a terrorist attack that had been planned for the weekend was foiled at the last minute with the arrest of a suspected accomplice of the jailed Revolutionary Struggle leader Nikos Maziotis, noting that the offices of New Democracy had been among the likely targets for the hit.

Greek Police Chief Dimitris Tsaknakis announced the arrest of the suspect, who was said to be aged between 25 and 30 but who was not named, at a press conference delivered jointly with Public Order Minister Vassilis Kikilias. He was to be charged later in the day with membership of a terrorist organization.

The suspect had with him a notebook with the names and addresses of prominent businessmen – notably the shipowner and chairman of Olympiakos soccer team, Vangelis Marinakis, and the head of the Federation of Hellenic Industries, Theodoros Fessas – as well as the telephone number of the Association of Greek Shipowners, whose president is Theodoros Veniamis. The notebook also contained references to New Democracy and the firms Capital, Siemens and Infoquest. The notes suggested that the offices of Capital and Infoquest would be staked out on October 1 and 2 and that rehearsal for the hit would be carried out on October 3 with the actual attack on October 4.

As New Democracy’s 40th anniversary is on October 4, police think an attack against the party was likely on the cards.

Undercover officers had been observing the suspect for several days and finally arrested him late on Wednesday outside a garage in the Athens neighborhood of Vyronas, Tsaknakis said. The arrest was carried out in the context of the ongoing search for Maziotis’s wife Panagiota Roupa, he added. Maziotis was arrested last July in a shootout in central Athens after nearly two years on the run.

A search on the garage turned up the roof rack and keys of the stolen Nissan that was used in a car bomb outside the Bank of Greece last April that was subsequently claimed by Revolutionary Struggle. The suspect’s contract for the rental of the garage bore Maziotis’s fingerprints, Kikilias added.

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