New delay in ELA terror trial
After a nine-day delay caused by the elections, the trial of five suspected Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA) suspects resumed yesterday only to be postponed for a further two days as court officials had forgotten to provide lawyers with crucial legal documents. Lawyers representing ELA victims and surviving targets complained that they could not properly examine prosecution witness Vassilis Zissis – the second witness to testify since the trial opened on February 9 – as they lacked some 1,000 pages of trial documents. Defense lawyers backed their colleagues, and presiding judge Elissavet Brilli decided to adjourn the trial until Monday. One of the defendants, architect Christos Tsigaridas – who has admitted responsibility for some ELA activities – proposed an even longer break, arguing that after the August Olympics judges will be under less pressure to deliver damning sentences. «Postpone the trial until after the Games,» he said. «You have nothing to fear from ELA, which ceased to exist in January 1995 and will never exist again.»
