In Brief
Bomb hoax
Phone call warns of three devices at Athens court Police cordoned off the area around a justice of the peace court near the city center yesterday morning after an unidentified caller telephoned the Eleftherotypia newspaper at 10.30 a.m., warning that a bomb would go off at the court at 11 a.m., followed by another two bombs on the hour for the next two hours. Bomb-disposal experts cleared the area around the junction of Pireos and Socratous streets but failed to find any suspect devices. Yesterday’s hoax follows three similar ones last week when callers warned of blasts in central Syntagma Square and the upmarket district of Kolonaki. Ex-bishop freed Swindling cleric leaves jail A Piraeus council of misdemeanors court judges yesterday released the former bishop of Attica, Panteleimon, who has served just over half his sentence after being convicted in 2006 for embezzling funds from a monastery. The former bishop was issued with a six-year jail sentence for embezzling the equivalent of 195,000 euros between 1995 and 1998 from a monastery in Nea Makri, northeastern Attica. The Piraeus council ruled that the ex-bishop, who turns 70 this year, had served his time. Ferries moored Passenger ferries remained moored at the port of Piraeus yesterday due to strong winds. It was unclear whether scheduled routes today would be canceled too. According to the National Meteorological Service, winds will reach between 5 and 7 on the Beaufort scale in Attica but will climb to 8 and even 9 Beaufort elsewhere. Officers’ trial Five Athens police officers alleged to have forged an official police document to create an alibi for a fellow officer facing legal action over the violent beating of a citizen are to stand trial today. The officers are alleged to have rewritten a police chart allocating shifts to show that the officer charged with the beating had been on duty at the time. Kiosk robbers Police in the northwestern city of Ioannina said yesterday that they were looking for a group of thieves believed to have netted more than 36,000 euros’ worth of cigarettes and cell phone credit cards in just two raids on street kiosks. In one raid, carried out on a kiosk in the northern town, the thieves netted 29,000 euros’ worth of goods. The other raid, attributed to the same thieves, targeted a street kiosk in the village of Kranoula, close to Perama, southeast of Ioannina. Weapons cache Police in Thessaloniki yesterday seized a large cache of weapons from the home of a 50-year-old Greek in the city’s industrial district of Evosmos. The arsenal comprised several rifles and shotguns as well as anti-aircraft missiles, rifle grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Police said they carried out the raid on the suspect’s home following a tip-off. They did not determine whether they were investigating possible links between the suspect and domestic terrorists.
