Five people, including a German woman, have been charged by Greek authorities for involvement in a terrorist group, just days before the start of a trial of dozens of radical anarchists.
Police in Athens said that the four men and the woman caught in anti-terror raids in the Greek capital were preparing a terrorist attack this weekend against an as yet unknown target.
Haralambos Tsilianidis, 23, Dimitrios Fessas, 23, Dimitrios Dimtsiadis, 23, and Socrates Tzifkas, 21, were arrested on Thursday in the Vyronas and Tavros districts of Athens, and an assault rifle and an automatic handgun, along with ammunition, were recovered from two residences searched by the police.
27-year-old Marie Fee Meyer, was arrested on Friday in the Perissos district.
Meyer, the daughter of Barbara Meyer, a former member of the leftist German terrorist group, the Red Army Faction, is said by Athens police to have had contacts with all four of the suspects who were arrested in Vyronas and Tavros.
The five face felony charges including establishment of and participation in a terrorist organisation and with weapons possession, while arrest warrants were outstanding for the four men in connection with the October 13, 2010 home-made bomb attack against the Public Power Corporation (PPC) offices in Thessaloniki.
Police said suspects arrested were believed to be involved in the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei terrorist group
“These attacks would have been staged in solidarity with the group’s members going on trial on January 17,” said police in a press release.
On Monday, thirteen suspected members of Conspiracy Nuclei of Fire go on trial on terrorism charges related to a string of attacks with small bombs on Greek politicians, which caused no injuries and minor damage.
The group is linked to a spate of parcel bombings against embassies in Athens and European government officials in November. The attacks caused no injuries, and authorities destroyed most of the bombs in controlled explosions.
Anarchist and left-wing groups have called a protest Monday outside a maximum-security Athens prison where the trial will be held.
SoucesL ANA, DPA, AFP, Reuters