Greek police say attacks possible ahead of anarchist trial
By Helene Colliopoulou (AFP)
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ATHENS — Greek police warned Friday that extremist groups could stage more attacks ahead of a trial of radical anarchists next month, a day after a bomb exploded outside an Athens court."We see a mobilisation by extremist groups in view of this trial," police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis told AFP.
Over a dozen suspects will be tried on January 17 for alleged involvement in Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, a radical anarchist group that in November sent 14 parcel bombs to embassies in Athens and European government leaders.
Last week a similar bombing campaign in Rome injured two people at the embassies of Switzerland and Chile and also targeted the Greek embassy.
It was claimed by an Italian anarchist group calling itself the Informal Federation of Anarchy, or FAI under its Italian acronym, which immediately expressed support to jailed Greek suspected militants.
"There is a dangerous under-current as there are various groups in Europe who are opposed to democracy and who express solidarity when their respective members are jailed," said political scientist Mairi Bossi.
Police in Greece insist there is no solid evidence showing actual cooperation between the Greek and Italian groups, though the issue has been raised during joint European police meetings.
"The question of potential links between groups in Greece, Italy and Spain frequently comes up during Europol and Euromed meetings," a senior police source said on condition of anonymity.
"We continue to investigate but so far there are no proven links," another senior officer said.
One potential piece of evidence under scrutiny is a batch of e-tickets found on the computer of a Greek suspect arrested in early December after the parcel bombings conducted by Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.
The tickets show that several suspected members of this radical anarchist group had travelled to Holland in April 2008 and March 2009.
Greek police have arrested several suspected extremists in the past 15 months and were believed to have dealt serious blows to the two main active far-left organisations, Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei and Revolutionary Struggle.
But on Thursday a powerful bomb exploded outside an Athens court and early findings suggested similarities to the methods used by both the groups.
In line with the past practice of the two outfits, anonymous phone calls had been made to a newspaper and a television station some 40 minutes before the explosion, enabling police to evacuate the area. Nobody was injured.
Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei surfaced in the middle of the decade and until now had limited its activities to arson and minor bomb hits against government buildings and the offices and homes of politicians.
Revolutionary Struggle emerged in 2003 and has staged over a dozen attacks, including a rocket strike against the American embassy in Athens three years ago and a powerful bomb strike against the Athens stock exchange last year.
One of Revolutionary Struggle's suspected members, a biologist named Lambros Fountas, was killed in a shoot-out with police in Athens in March 2010.
After his death, police tracked down and arrested six other alleged Revolutionary Struggle members. Their trial is also expected in 2011.
One of FAI's attacks in Rome last week was claimed on behalf of the "Lambros Fountas Cell".
But in an open letter on Wednesday, three jailed members of Revolutionary Struggle disassociated themselves from the Rome blasts, stressing that the group had never sought to cause chance casualties in its attacks.
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