Fugitive girlfriend suspected of planning prison break for convicted terrorist

The fugitive girlfriend of convicted terrorist Giorgos Maziotis is thought to be the woman who hired a helicopter on Sunday and threatened the pilot at gunpoint, possibly in an attempt to break her partner out of the capital’s Korydallos Prison.

Police on Monday said a woman answering the description of Panagiota Roupa hired a six-passenger helicopter ostensibly to fly her from the northern Peloponnese to the island of Kythnos. Once in flight, she allegedly pulled out a gun and ordered the pilot to change course toward Athens, firing two shots when the pilot tried to disarm her.

The pilot, who was not injured in the scuffle, managed to land the aircraft just north of Attica but was unable to stop the assailant from running off.

A shell casing retrieved from the helicopter has further strengthened investigators’ suspicions, as it was found to have come from a gun used by Maziotis to hold up a bank in March 2014.

Vassilis Paleokostas, a serial robber, escaped from Korydallos twice by helicopter.