EU drops ELA from its terrorist blacklist
The European Union said yesterday that it had removed the Greek extremist group Revolutionary Popular Struggle (ELA) from its list of terrorist organizations. Six people were cleared last year of being members of ELA, which was responsible for a string of attacks, mostly against US-linked targets, between 1975 and 1995, that killed two people. Four of the six suspects had previously been convicted of being part of the group. The EU drew up its terrorist blacklist late in 2001, following the September 11 attacks in the USA. It allows the assets of listed groups to be frozen. The radical Palestinian group Hamas, which currently holds power in the Palestinian territories, is one of the organizations still on the EU’s blacklist. The decision to remove ELA was taken on Monday night by EU foreign ministers but no reason was given for the move.
