Series of blasts target judiciary
A string of seven arson attacks yesterday, targeting a top anti-terrorism prosecutor as well as a judge, a lawyer and others who have spoken out against terrorism, was interpreted by police as a coordinated campaign by anti-establishment figures. There had been no claim of responsibility by late last night for any of the blasts, which caused damage but no injuries. The first attack targeted the home of prosecutor Dimitris Papangelopoulos in Iliopoulis, southeastern Athens. An improvised explosive device, comprising four gas canisters, detonated at 6.30 a.m. outside the home of Papangelopoulos, who is responsible for heading probes into domestic terrorist attacks. Police said the arsonists took advantage of a «dead zone» in the morning when a guard outside the prosecutor’s home finishes his shift. Shortly after midday a similar explosive device detonated outside the home of Supreme Court magistrate Vassilis Foukas, who had been one of the presiding judges in the trial of November 17 terror group suspects in 2007. At around the same time another device went off outside the office of lawyer Stavros Georgiou, one of the prosecution lawyers at the trial of N17 members. Speaking to Kathimerini after the incident, Georgiou attributed the attack to a reaction to televised comments he had made during the December riots in Athens. Athens University criminology professor Ioannis Panousis, whose office was also targeted yesterday, said he believed too that the attack had been a reaction to recent comments of his on the subject of terrorism. Another three homemade bombs yesterday targeted the Athens offices of Rizospasti, a far-left daily newspaper, the offices of PASOK deputy Theodoros Pangalos and an apartment block in central Athens where Pangalos’s daughter resides. Another resident of the same block, an elderly woman, sustained minor injuries when she suffered a fall during the attack.
