Maziotis refuses to answer to magistrate

The leader of Greek terror group Revolutionary Struggle, Nikos Maziotis, who has been in detention since last Wednesday following a shootout with police in central Athens, on Monday refused to answer the questions of an investigating magistrate, choosing instead to send a political message.

“The members of Revolutionary Struggle do not have to answer for anything,” Maziotis is alleged to have told the magistrate who visited him at Korydallos Prison. “It is others who should answer for the social genocide that is being carried out in the country.” Maziotis’s lawyer Spyros Fytrakis confirmed to reporters that the 42-year-old guerrilla had refused to answer questions.

The magistrate leveled a series of additional charges, including attempted manslaughter and the illegal use and possession of guns and explosives, against Maziotis, who was convicted last year for leading a terrorist organization and sentenced to 50 years in jail. He and his wife Panayiota Roupa were convicted in absentia about a year after the pair violated the terms of their conditional release having served the maximum of 18 months in pretrial custody. The new charges leveled against Maziotis relate to acts he has been implicated in during the two years that he was a fugitive.

Police yesterday continued their search for Roupa (with whom Maziotis and the couple’s son had been living in an apartment in Maroussi, northern Athens), as well as other suspected accomplices of the guerrilla leader, including his suspected right-hand man, Giorgos Petrakakos. The latter is believed to have taken part in at least two of the many armed robberies carried out by members of Revolutionary Struggle to fund the organization’s activities.

Counterterrorism officers were believed to be close...