Terror suspects detained after bomb blast
A raid last night on a house in the northeastern Athens district of Halandri that counterterrorism officers have been monitoring for months resulted in the arrest of four suspects that police believe might be responsible for a bomb planted at the central Athens home of a prominent opposition PASOK deputy earlier in the day, causing damage but no injuries. Police were last night said to be questioning a young couple found at the house in Halandri and two other young people arrested subsequently in connection with yesterday’s blast outside the home of Louka Katseli, PASOK’s shadow minister for finance. According to sources, officers seized explosives from the Halandri property. Sources told Kathimerini yesterday that counterterrorism police had been monitoring suspects and several houses in anticipation of a politically motivated attack ahead of October 4 elections. The bomb, which was placed outside the apartment block where Katseli lives in Kolonaki, central Athens, was described by police as being «of moderate strength.» It been deposited in a cooking pot and planted outside the apartment, which is located on heavily policed Tsakalov Street. Katseli, who is married to former PASOK Minister Gerasimos Arsenis, was not home at the time of the explosion. The cooking pot technique was used in July by Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire when it targeted the home of former Deputy Interior Minister Panayiotis Hinofotis in Palaio Faliro. Unconfirmed reports yesterday said that cooking pots were seized in the Halandri house raid.
