Court to examine report on N17 keys
The court hearing the appeals of November 17 terrorist group convicts yesterday agreed to consider the findings of a police report about a set of keys discovered at the group’s Athens hideout in 2002, provoking objections from defense lawyers. There has been no light shed on the contents of the 360-page report, submitted by prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani, but it is thought to focus on the discovery of fingerprints on the keys that do not match those of any N17 convicts. Another court decision yesterday – to reject defense appeals against the composition of the five-judge bench – also angered defense lawyers, who claim that the absence of a jury violates their clients’ constitutional rights. Overall, yesterday’s proceedings were fraught with friction. The lawyer for Vassilis Tzortzatos condemned the advocate for Heather Saunders – widow of British Defense Attache Stephen Saunders, killed by N17 in 2000 – as «an agent for the Americans.» Saunders’s lawyer Ilias Anagnostopoulos countered that «such addresses suggest human life is graded according to nationality.» N17’s chief hit man Dimitris Koufodinas grabbed the chance to condemn Anagnostopoulos as «an agent of war criminals and US imperialism.» Meanwhile, Tzortzatos sought to dispel rumors about splits among N17 convicts by stating, «There are no groupings… just different people with different approaches.»
