Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei

Two anarchists arrested on Wednesday following a botched holdup of a money delivery van at Thessaloniki's AHEPA Hospital, who are thought to have links to guerrilla groups Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire and Group of Popular Fighters, have been given until Tuesday to prepare their defense.

Yiannis Michalidis, an alleged member of the urban guerrilla group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, has escaped from the agricultural prison of Tyrintha in the Peloponnese.

Police in Piraeus on Friday were evacuating the port city's courthouse after two anonymous callers claimed that a bomb was rigged to go off on the premises.

More than a year after a letter bomb sent from Greece exploded at International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Paris, injuring the employee who opened it, French counterterrorism and judicial officials were in Athens recently to discuss the progress of investigations with their Greek counterparts, Kathimerini has learned.

Greece, and to a lesser extent Italy and Spain, are the only countries in the European Union still facing the threat of left-wing violence, Europol said in its annual "Terrorism Situation and Trend" (TESAT) report.

A spate of lawlessness in central Athens by self-styled anarchists, including acts of vandalism and arson, is being coordinated by jailed members of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire guerrilla group, Kathimerini understands. 

A protest by inmates at Attica's high-security Korydallos Prison ended on Tuesday after around five hours.

The protest, which involved convicted members of the guerrilla group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire, was held to express solidarity with Constantinos Giagtzoglou, the 29-year-old terrorist suspect who was transferred from Korydallos to a Larissa penitentiary on Saturday.

Lucas Papademos, who was seriously injured when a letter bomb exploded in his car in May last year, has told Kathimerini in an interview that he does not regret assuming the post of prime minister at the peak of the country's crisis and decried a "deeply polarized political climate" which, he said, created fertile ground for terrorist attacks.

A 29-year-old man arrested on Saturday in connection with a letter bomb that seriously injured former prime minister Lucas Papademos in Athens in May may have been behind a number of attacks orchestrated by the urban guerrilla groups Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire and Revolutionary Struggle, unconfirmed police sources have said.

Police are investigating the suspected connections to two terrorist groups of a 29-year-old man arrested over the weekend in connection with a letter bomb attack in May on former prime minister Lucas Papademos and other similar attempted hits.

The man, who was named by police on Monday as Constantinos Giagtzoglou, had been under investigation for two months.