As six suspected members of the Revolutionary Struggle extremist guerrilla group faced a prosecutor yesterday, officers of the police’s counterterrorism unit continued their search for a hideout containing explosives and weapons used by the organization.

The six who were arrested were Nikolaos Maziotis, aged 39, Panayiota Roupa, aged 41, Evaggelos Stathopoulos, aged 32, Christoforos Kortesi, aged 31, Sarantos Nikitopoulos, aged 32 and Constantinos Gournas, aged 30.

The five men and one woman were charged with membership of a terrorist group and with multiple counts of murder, causing explosions and weapons offenses in connection with a string of attacks on police and business and government targets over the past seven years.

The suspects arrived at the main Athens court complex escorted by anti-terrorist police, and were whisked into the prosecutor’s office.

As they were leaving dozens of people who had gathered to chant slogans in support of the detainees threw plastic bottles and scuffled with police, who responded with pepper spray.

Two people were arrested for the disturbance, which followed anarchist groups’ calls for a show of solidarity.

Three of the six suspects were given until tomorrow to prepare their defense; the other three have until Thursday morning.

Nikos Maziotis, the group’s suspected leader, was quoted as saying that he would not testify tomorrow.

“These charges are politically motivated and so we will not defend ourselves; we are not going to legitimize this process,” the 39-year-old Maziotis allegedly told the court.

Police are also seeking the hideout where the organization stored the weaponry and explosives for its attacks.

So far raids on a string of apartments – including one in Nea Philadelphia, northern Athens, where the suspects are alleged to have met before nearly all the attacks – have turned up only computer hard drives containing proclamations and hand-drawn sketches, not explosives and weapons.

Forensic experts yesterday were examining bullet casings from a Kalashnikov assault rifle found in a remote spot on the slopes of Mount Hymettus by officers who had followed one of the six suspects there over the weekend ahead of their arrests. Police believe the group had used the spot for firing practice.

Revolutionary Struggle first appeared in 2003, a year after authorities eradicated Greece’s deadliest left-wing group, November 17, and has bombed banks, government buildings and the Athens Stock Exchange, in three cases causing minor injuries to bystanders.

Its most spectacular hit was the 2007 rocket-propelled grenade attack on the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy, which caused minor damage but no injuries.

The U.S. government subsequently offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Revolutionary Struggle members.

The group also shot and severely wounded a riot policeman last year.

That attack came during a spike in anarchist and far-left violence that followed the fatal police shooting of an Athens teenager in December 2008 and days of rioting in Greek cities.