Tests confirm Revolutionary Self-Defense behind police hit at PASOK offices

Ballistic tests on bullet casings collected from the scene of an armed attack on police at the headquarters of the PASOK party in central Athens on Tuesday have revealed that the Kalashnikov assault rifle used in the hit was the same as that fired at the same offices in May 2014 and at the Mexican Embassy in Athens in July.

The latter two attacks were both claimed by the Revolutionary Self-Defense urban guerrilla group.

There had been no claim of responsibility by late Wednesday night for Tuesday’s attack outside the PASOK offices, which injured a police officer, but police are certain that Revolutionary Self-Defense planned the attack.

According to sources, police also believe the same perpetrator could be behind this latest hit. Footage from security cameras in a store close to the PASOK offices showed a tall, masked man firing an assault rifle at the building and then fleeing on foot.

Authorities think it likely that Tuesday’s attack was carried out as an act of revenge following last week’s arrest of Panagiota Roupa, a leading member of the Revolutionary Struggle terrorist organization.

In a related development, jailed Revolutionary Struggle leader Nikos Maziotis lashed out against Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis and Citizens’ Protection Minister Nikos Toskas in a statement posted on the anarchist website Indymedia.gr, saying the two cabinet officials “need a bullet in the head.”

Roupa joined Maziotis at Attica’s high-security Korydallos Prison earlier this week. Their 5-year-old son, who was with Roupa at the time of her arrest last Thursday, was handed to his grandmother by authorities.