NEWS

Nov. 17 fact box

LONDON (Reuters) – A Greek court yesterday handed down multiple life sentences to members of the November 17 guerrilla group. Following are details of some of their crimes and sentences: Dec. 23, 1975 – November 17 emerges by shooting dead American Richard Welch, the CIA station chief in Athens. Dec. 14, 1976 – Evangelos Mallios, a former officer accused of torture under the military junta, shot dead. Jan. 16, 1980 – Deputy head of the Greek riot police Pantelis Petrou and his driver Sotiris Stamoulis shot dead. The three above attacks were not subject to trial. Nov. 15, 1983 – US military attache George Tsantes shot six times. His driver, Nikos Veloutsos, is also killed. Group mastermind Alexandros Yotopoulos gets life. April 3, 1984 – US Flight Sergeant Robert Judd shot and later dies. Yotopouolos: 15 years, Christodoulos Xeros: 15 years, hitman Dimitris Koufodinas: 12 years. Dec. 24, 1984 – Policeman Christos Matis gunned down in bank robbery. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas, C. Xeros: life. Feb. 21, 1985 – Newspaper publisher Nikos Momferatos and his driver Panayiotis Roussetis shot dead in central Athens. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas, C. Xeros and Vassilis Tzortzatos: two life sentences each. Nov. 26, 1985 – Policeman Nikos Georgakopoulos killed when riot squad bus blown up in central Athens. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas, C. Xeros: life. April 8, 1986 – Industrialist Dimitris Angelopoulos killed in central Athens. Yotopoulos, C. Xeros: life. March 1, 1988 – Industrialist Alexandros Athanassiadis shot five times. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas, Tzortzatos: life. June 28, 1988 – US naval attache Captain William Nordeen killed by remote-controlled bomb in northern Athens. Yotopoulos, C. Xeros: life. Jan. 10, 1989 – Prosecutor Costas Androulidakis shot in Athens, dies five weeks later. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas, Tzortzatos: life. Sept. 26, 1989 – New Democracy deputy Pavlos Bakoyiannis shot dead in central Athens. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas and Iraklis Kostaris: life. March 12, 1991 – US Air Force Sergeant Ronald Stewart killed by remote-controlled bomb. Yotopoulos, Savas Xeros: life. Oct. 7, 1991 – Turkish deputy press attache Cetin Gorgu shot dead outside his home. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas: life. Nov. 2, 1991 – Riot policeman Yiannis Varis fatally wounded in rocket attack. Yotopoulos, S. Xeros, C. Xeros: life. July 14, 1992 – Rocket fired at Finance Minister Ioannis Palaiokrassas’s car in central Athens. He survives; a passer-by is killed. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas, C. Xeros: two life terms each. Jan. 24, 1994 – Former National Bank of Greece Governor Michalis Vranopoulos gunned down. Yotopoulos, Koufodinas: life. July 4, 1994 – Turkish diplomat Omer Haluk Sipahioglu shot dead. Yotopoulos, S. Xeros: life. May 28, 1997 – Shipowner Costis Peratikos killed in the port of Piraeus. Yotopoulos, S. Xeros: life. June 8, 2000 – British defense attache Brigadier Stephen Saunders shot and killed by two attackers on a motorcycle while driving to work. Yotopouolos: life, Koufodinas, S. Xeros: life. March 3, 2003 – The trial for the 19 suspects opens. Dec. 8, 2003 – The court convicts 15 members of the group including Yotopoulos, who was found guilty of 961 crimes. Four defendants found not guilty. Dec. 17, 2003 – A Greek court hands down multiple life terms to Yotopoulos, who is given 21 life sentences. Koufodinas gets 13 life terms for murder.

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