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Face of terror

13 April 2010 / 16:04:59  GRReporter
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Police revealed the chief of the Greek terrorist organization "Revolutionary Fight" 39-year-old Nikos Maziotis. In 1998 he was arrested for placing a bomb in the Ministry of Agricultural Development and sentenced to prison for 15 years, serving part of that, he was pardoned later on. 

Police found Nikos Maziotis after tracing calls from a public phone to terrorist Lembros Foundas’ mobile phone, who was shot a month ago. Most of those calls were made from Kaliviya neighborhood. Finding the exact phone number in Kaliviya, police discovered that often Maziotis makes calls from there and in recent years he has been under surveillance and a terrorist suspect. 

From 2004, when 5 bullets hit the guard of the British military attache, police is lead to Nikos Maziotis. In that case no terrorist organization took responsibility for the crime, but the anti-terrorism team revealed that the three used mobile phones, were purchased from a store in the neighborhood of Piraeus. The owner of the store recognized Nikos Maziotis when police showed him a photo, but for obvious reasons he refused to give official statements. 

Maziotis was arrested in 2007 for robbing a supermarket in the neighborhood of Ilion, and in April the same year, police confiscated explosives from the quarry on the island of Kythira. At the same time Nikos Maziotis was on the island and police believe he had access to the explosives. The terrorist often travels from Athens to Kythira, visiting two of his friends. During the riots in December 2008 in Athens, authorities see Maziotis in the city center, but then they lost track of him. 

The six main suspects, who were sent yesterday to the prosecutor, were all arrested in houses that nobody could have suspected of being terrorists hideaways. The hideaways are located in not so populated neighborhoods and their balconies were surrounded with straw wattles to protect its residents from indiscreet glances. Neighbors said they are "falling from the sky" and although they did not know anything about the privacy of the arrested, they say that they never gave any reason for doubt that something wrong was going on their homes. 

Police found important clues in the house of Nikos Maziotis and his 41-year-old wife Panayota Roupa, who is also accused of being part of "Revolutionary Fight". In the hard disk of their computer police found two previous pamphlets for previous attacks and a new "draft", proving that the organization was preparing a new attack. In this apartment, which Maziotis has rented two years ago, was the headquarters of the organization, where part of the attacks were planned and letters were drafted, which later circulated to the media, say police representatives. 

When placing a bomb or preparing for an attack, the participating members were leaving their hideaways at the same time. Then they headed to three different houses from where they picked up the necessary equipment - one was responsible for camouflage clothing, another - for weapons, and others - for the bomb. In order for the police not to catch them they were arriving at the final destination through different routes and in case they felt that the police was following them, they had to change their route so that they will not take the police to other members of the group.

Furthermore, in order to understand each other, the "boss" was giving information to two members of the organization, those two were spreading it to another two and during the attacks they were using walkie-talkie sets, rather than mobile phones. Terrorists were meeting in remote and desolate areas between 2:00AM and 5:00AM. To move before the attacks, terrorists used stolen cars, this is why they avoided central highways, which are monitored by cameras and have traffic police. 

In recent years, the anti-terrorism department has worked at least ten times on different versions that Nikos Maziotis was involved in a terrorist organization, but never found anything. One of the supporters of the version that Maziotis is certainly a terrorist is the Minister of Civil Protection Michalis Chrisochoidis. The position of senior police officers is different and they are trying to dissuade Minister Chrisochoidis by presenting photos of Maziotis, proving that during the attacks he had an alibi. Until the last moment officers are not convinced that Maziotis is involved and believe the evidence is quite contradictory. 

For the first time police focuses on Nikos Maziotis after the first strike of "Revolutionary Fight" on September 5, 2003, after having received information about him from foreign intelligence services. From then on the anti-terrorism services began monitoring his movements around central Athens and to the city of Kalamata, from where his wife Panayots Roupa is. "Almost always, he felt we were following him," police officers say. Due to the fact that he was constantly under the police’s eye, police officers believe it is difficult for him to manage to cover his tracks so efficient and to fail to find evidence of his participation in the terrorist organization. 

The six accused were strictly guarded and taken to the prosecutor at 10:20AM yesterday morning. In front of the building their supporters and families were chanting in their support. Nikos Maziotis and his wife Panayota Roupa refuse to testify and want to be taken on a political trial.

Tags: Terrorism police Greece Athens bomb explosive
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