GREECE: A Greek court yesterday convicted 15 members of the November 17 guerrilla group, including the top assassin and the mastermind, for a 27-year killing spree against prominent Greeks, as well as US, British and Turkish diplomats.
The convictions eased security concerns ahead of the Athens Olympics next August, and appeared to close the chapter on the group that staged rocket attacks, bombings, shootings and bank robberies in central Athens and taunted authorities in letters to the media.
The radical Marxists took their name from the date of a 1973 student uprising, which was crushed with tanks by a then-ruling military junta.
November 17 claimed 23 killings, starting with Athens CIA station chief Richard Welch in 1975, and eluded police until a bungled bombing in 2002.
"I think the chapter of terrorism in Greece is finally over," said Mr Michalis Tsinisizelidis, political science professor at Athens University.
Three judges delivered the verdicts at the end of a marathon trial involving 19 accused members of November 17. There was no jury because terrorism charges were involved.
The 15 were convicted of nearly 2,500 crimes, ranging from murder to possession of arms, bank robberies and membership of a criminal organisation. Sentences will come later this week.
Four defendants were found not guilty, including the wife of the convicted chief assassin.
Alexandros Giotopoulos (59) was convicted on 961 of 963 charges. He faces multiple life sentences for involvement in 19 murders, including the last killing, the shooting of British military attache Stephen Saunders in Athens in 2000.
His lawyer vowed to appeal the verdict.
Saunders's widow, Heather, said: "At the end of the day nobody really wins in this situation, but if they are taken off the streets for a while and given a dose of their own medicine - albeit no comparison to what we suffered - then that, perhaps, is justice."
In court to hear the verdicts were Athens Mayor and Olympic Games host Dora Bakoyiannis. Her husband Pavlos, a conservative parliamentarian, was shot dead by the gang in 1989.
"Greek justice spoke today. Its decisions are respected by all," she said. "But our people will not be coming back."
Giotopoulos was a student in Paris in the 1960s and the son of Greece's most prominent Trotskyite.
As he was led from court, he smiled, waved to spectators and shouted: "Today's Greece is a modern colony of the United States."
Justice Minister Mr Philippos Petsalnikos welcomed the verdict as a victory for the justice system and ruled out the extradition of any of the convicted guerrillas to the US. "According to the existing law there is no way they will be extradited to the United States, categorically no way," he said.