Public Safety Minister Michalis Chryssochoidis last week offered a reward of 600,000 euros to anyone who can provide information about three wanted criminal suspects known as the “robbers in black,” as it emerged that the three men are believed to have links to resurgent domestic terrorism.
Chryssochoidis, whose newly formed ministry has pledged a police crackdown criminal activities, promised anonymity to anyone with information about Simeon Seisidis and his brother Marios, aged 33 and 28 respectively, as well as Grigoris Tsironis, aged 30.
The announcement came after Public Safety Minister Michalis Chryssochoidis and Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou signed a joint decision last week promising the reward and full anonymity for informants that help authorities bring the three into custody, stressing that there are outstanding warrants for their arrest on criminal charges but also outstanding convictions against them.
The Seisidis brothers and Tsironis are believed to have planned and carried out an armed robbery on a branch of National Bank in central Athens in January 2006 which resulted in the injury of one of the perpetrators, 28-year-old student Yiannis Dimitrakis, who is currently serving a 25-year sentence for his part in the raid.
Chryssochoidis’s decision to issue a reward for the capture of the other three suspects comes just a few days after he called for the reinvestigation of the terror group November 17, which was disbanded in 2002 and whose key suspected members are serving long jail sentences.