Reward offered for terror suspects
Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis yesterday offered a reward of 600,000 euros to anyone who can provide information about three wanted criminal suspects known as the «robbers in black,» as it emerged that the three men are believed to have links to resurgent domestic terrorism. Chrysochoidis, whose newly formed ministry has pledged a crackdown on the criminal activities of self-styled anarchists, promised anonymity to anyone with information about Simeon Seisidis and his brother Marios, aged 33 and 28 respectively, as well as Grigoris Tsironis, aged 30. The Seisidis brothers and Tsironis are believed to have planned and carried out an armed robbery on a branch of National Bank in central Athens in January 2006 which resulted in the injury of one of the perpetrators, 28-year-old student Yiannis Dimitrakis, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence for his part in the raid. Chrysochoidis’s decision to issue a reward for the capture of the other three suspects comes just a few days after he called for the reinvestigation of the terror group November 17, which was disbanded in 2002 and whose key suspected members are serving long jail sentences. According to police sources, the result of forensic tests link one of the three robbery suspects to an attack on the private guard of a former judge in April 2007 and to a subsequent shooting against an Athens police station claimed by Revolutionary Struggle, a terror group that is still active. According to police, the attack on the Nea Ionia Police Station was carried out using bullets from the same batch as a submachine gun taken from the guard. The development has consolidated police suspicions that the three robbery suspects are involved in domestic terrorism. In a related development yesterday, Supreme Court prosecutor Yiannis Tentes asked the council of appeal court judges to convene so it could appoint an investigative magistrate to oversee the probe into the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire. Four suspected members of the group, which has claimed several bomb blasts, were arrested last month and Tentes believes that an experienced, high-ranking magistrate should be appointed to the case due to its importance.
