Terrorist leader refuses to talk
Nikos Maziotis, the self-confessed ringleader of Revolutionary Struggle, yesterday refused to answer to three new charges brought against him and another five suspected members of the terrorist group by two investigating magistrates probing the organization’s activities. In a written statement sent to the two magistrates, Maziotis claimed to have «done nothing that I need to answer for.» «Revolutionaries do not defend themselves before criminals of the state,» the statement said. Maziotis and five other suspected members of Revolutionary Struggle were summoned on Monday to respond to an additional criminal and two misdemeanor charges. The six suspects have been in jail since April pending trial for a string of bombings and shootings believed to have been carried out by the militant group since 2003. Two of the suspects, Sarantos Nikitopoulos and Vangelis Stathopoulos, appeared before the magistrates yesterday and were given until October 20 to prepare their defense. Nikitopoulos, Stathopoulos and another suspect, Christoforos Kortesis, have denied any role in the group’s activities. Panayiota Roupa, who is Maziotis’s girlfriend, and the sixth suspect, Costas Gournas, who allegedly managed the organization’s money, have also refused to answer to the charges. Maziotis, Roupa and Gournas wrote a joint letter to the leftist Pontiki weekly shortly after their arrest in April, admitting to their role in the attacks. All six suspects have refused to give DNA samples to police, who are seeking physical evidence to connect the suspects to the group’s hideouts. According to sources, police forensic officers have found fingerprints at the hideouts that do not correspond to those of the six suspects currently in custody. Police believe that the new fingerprints belong to key members of the terrorist group.
