Police catch helicopter jailbreak fugitive
Police yesterday swooped on an isolated country house in a small village near Grammatiko, northeastern Attica, arresting Alket Rizai the Albanian convict who escaped from Korydallos Prison in February with notorious bank robber Vassilis Palaiocostas in a dramatic helicopter breakout. Officers of the police’s special anti-terrorism unit (EKAM), who had been on Rizai’s trail for several months, surrounded the house at dawn yesterday and called on the fugitive to turn himself in. Rizai, a convicted murderer, immediately surrendered, according to police who also arrested his 33-year-old Greek girlfriend, a mother of two identified only as Aspasia M. or Soula. A subsequent search of the house unearthed a cache of assault rifles, shotguns and hand grenades. Police also detained an Albanian couple found in a basement apartment built into the house but gave no details about them. Officers were clearer about the role of the 33-year-old woman. She is alleged to have rented the house in Ano Souli, near Grammatiko, last Friday, and to have leased several other properties in the past, always under different names, for Rizai. It is the same woman who is alleged to have rented the helicopter in which Rizai and Paleokostas escaped from Korydallos in February. Two cars found parked outside the property in Ano Souli had both been stolen, according to police. The Smart car was the property of the French bank franchise BNP Paribas while the bullet-proof Mercedes had belonged to the owner of an Attica nightclub who was murdered last June. Rizai and Aspasia M. are to face a prosecutor and investigating magistrate tomorrow.
