Greek Police Hunt for Convicted Terrorist Who Disappeared on Furlough

January 7, 2014

The New York Times

By NIKI KITSANTONIS

ATHENS — The Greek authorities on Tuesday began a nationwide search for a convicted member of the dismantled November 17 group, once the country’s deadliest guerrilla organization, after he failed to report to the police during a prison furlough, fueling fears of a resurgence of political violence.

The inmate, Christodoulos Xiros, 55, was serving multiple life terms at the high-security Korydallos Prison near Athens for a series of deadly attacks carried out by the group, chiefly against Greek, British and American business and political targets. Fifteen members of the group, which blended Marxist ideals with nationalism, were convicted in 2003 for 23 killings and dozens of bombings over nearly three decades. Mr. Xiros, a maker of musical instruments, and two of his brothers were among those jailed.

According to a police spokesman, Mr. Xiros was granted a nine-day furlough on Jan. 1 to visit his family in Halkidiki, in northern Greece. He failed to report to a police station on Monday, after checking in regularly on the previous days.

“He’s at large and we’re looking for him, that’s all we can say right now,” said the official, who insisted on customary anonymity, adding that the manhunt was “large, because of the significance of the individual.”

Mr. Xiros’s lawyer, Fragiskos Ragousis, said he was not in contact with his client but interpreted his disappearance as “a political escape.” “It is a political decision in line with his beliefs and his opinions about freedom,” he told Greek television.

The Greek news media, which had been focusing on preparations for Greece’s official assumption of the European Union’s rotating six-month presidency on Wednesday, swirled with rumors about the whereabouts and intentions of Mr. Xiros. The police said security would be tightened as dozens of foreign dignitaries arrive in Athens to attend the festivities.

In a televised exchange with President Karolos Papoulias, Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias described terrorism as “a significant danger” for the country and its fragile economic recovery, saying, “The terrorists’ bullets are essentially targeting the unemployed.”

Amid growing security concerns, the authorities said they would review the furlough rights of Greeks serving prison time for terrorism and other severe crimes.

“We will re-examine the legislative framework for the issuing of furloughs and in particular of this particular category of inmates,” Justice Minister Haralambos Athanassiou said in a statement Tuesday.

Mr. Xiros is not the only convicted terrorist who is at large after absconding during a furlough. The police are also seeking Nikos Maziotis, the leader of another disbanded guerrilla organization, Revolutionary Struggle. Mr. Maziotis, whose leftist group is best known for firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the United States Embassy in Athens in 2007, has been unaccounted for since the summer of 2012, when he failed to return from a furlough.

Speculation has been rife about the possible involvement of Mr. Maziotis in a new wave of political violence against Greek and foreign political targets.

Last week, gunmen with assault rifles fired on the home of the German ambassador in Athens, but caused no injuries. The attack, for which no one has claimed responsibility, was widely regarded as a protest against the dominant role of Germany in Greece’s bailout by the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which has imposed severe austerity measures on Greeks.

The Greek police are also seeking clues about a new guerrilla group called Militant Popular Revolutionary Forces, which claimed responsibility for killing two members of the neofascist party Golden Dawn in November. The group described the attack as retaliation for the killing of an antifascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas, by a self-professed supporter of Golden Dawn in September. But it also lashed out at “the international usurers who are drinking the blood of the Greek people with a straw,” a clear reference to Greece’s international creditors.

Envoys representing the creditors are due to return to Athens next week to resume stalled negotiations on economic measures to be imposed on Greece in return for continued rescue funding