Simply common criminals
The revelation by the police that some of the accomplices to the kidnapping of businessman Giorgos Mylonas, the former chairman of the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece, belonged to an anarchist group should be cause for general concern. We should not forget that not so long ago members of such groups were arrested in the act of robbing banks. The reappearance of these apparent underground connections are hardly new in the annals of international crime-fighting. However, they are particularly interesting for Greece because, in many ways and in many quarters, criminal behavior in this country is glorified when it is cloaked in the rhetoric of political action. Clearly, the situation is not as innocent as some rather naive people would like to believe. Crimes against human lives and people’s property belong firmly in the realm of common criminal law, irrespective of the fact that some people – who are often looking to serve their own interests – would like to call them political crimes.