Police linking courthouse parcel bomb to terrorism attempt

Investigators are reportedly working on the assumption that the envelope containing explosives that was sent on Monday to the Thessaloniki courthouse addressed to the president of the Court of Appeal was an attempted terrorist attack without, however, correlating the case with the recent strikes at the headquarters of the riot police in Goudi and the Ministry of Labor.

The envelope was apparently brought to the courthouse 10 days prior by an individual who said he was an employee of a courier company. The envelope was received by a secretary of the courthouse and was not checked in the X-ray machine before ending up in the office of the president of the Court of Appeal, on the third floor. 

While not ruling out the possibility that the case may be linked to other criminal activity, officials at the Citizen Protection Ministry are also reportedly converging on the view that it was indeed an attempted terror attack.

The president of the Court of Appeal had reportedly received threats from convicted criminals. However police sources say the case is more likely linked to “urban guerrilla” groups. The Thessaloniki courthouse was also the target of a terrorist attack in 2010.

As the device was defused by a bomb disposal unit before it could detonate and transferred intact to the forensic laboratories, investigators are optimistic that they will be able to identify the perpetrator.

The envelope was found at noon on Monday, having remained for 10 days in the office of the president of the Court of Appeal, who was absent on sick leave.

She received all her mail, including the envelope in question, when she returned to her office on Monday morning. The sender on the envelope was “the Union of Judges and Prosecutors” and it did not bear a post office stamp, which means that it had not been sent by post. It also did not have the relevant stamp on all parcels checked at the X-ray machine operating at the entrance to the courthouse. This had led investigators to conclude that the envelope may have been transported inside the courthouse from a side entrance where there is no X-ray machine.

According to police sources, the device was probably made up of gelatin dynamite and the wiring was such that it would explode as soon as the judge opened the envelope.