N17 leader rubbishes decision
The man convicted last week of running the November 17 terrorist group that killed 23 people between 1975 and 2000, Alexandros Yotopoulos, claimed to have been an innocent victim of circumstances during a live radio interview on Saturday. «It was not a fair trial, not even a trial but rather a tasteless piece of theater,» the 59-year-old translator told SKAI radio. «The part of the decision that concerns me was dictated by the Americans.» On Monday, the three-judge appeals court trying 19 N17 suspects found Yotopoulos guilty of instigating all but three of the group’s illegal acts between 1983 and 2002. Four defendants were acquitted. Sentencing is expected today or tomorrow. For Yotopoulos, the prosecution has asked for a sentence of 21 life terms plus 2,442 years, and a 58,500-euro fine. «When Savvas Xeros’s bomb went off, [the authorities] had already decided I was the leader,» he said. «Ten years before, it would have been [leftist author Pericles] Korovesis or someone else.» Asked what he expected during sentencing, Yotopoulos turned to Latin: «Sic transit gloria mundi.»
