ELA trial resumes as defense lawyers return
The upheaval in the defense of one of the five Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA) terrorist suspects came full circle yesterday, as the court accepted that Irini Athanassaki’s three original lawyers, who had all walked out in protest, can continue to represent her. The standoff caused a six-day delay to Greece’s second major terrorism trial, which has made little headway since it opened on February 9. Yesterday’s decision to let Athanassaki be represented by her original team (the court had rejected a similar demand last week) came after the second of the two lawyers appointed in their stead refused to do the job, saying his client did not want him. Two members of the initial team stormed out on Feb. 19 after the court accepted as evidence documents purportedly taken from the archives of the former East German secret service. The third briefly resigned yesterday.
