Letter bomb suspect to testify to magistrate on Wednesday

A 29-year-old man accused of mailing several letter bombs to foreign and Greek financial officials – including one that exploded in the hands of former prime minister Lucas Papademos in May, injuring him seriously – has been given until Wednesday to testify to a special investigating magistrate.

The suspect, identified as Constantinos Giagtzoglou, was ordered to submit to a test by investigating authorities, so that forensic analysts can check whether his DNA is compatible with trace evidence found on one of eight booby-trapped envelopes intercepted at the Greek capital’s central mail facility in Kryoneri in March. All mail came under close scrutiny earlier that month after German authorities stopped a letter bomb that had been posted from Greece and was addressed to former finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

Investigators also have good reason to believe that Giagtzoglou’s DNA may match that found at the scene of an attack on police in downtown Athens on May 11, 2011, as well as the scenes of other violence by self-styled anarchists.

Police have already discovered that Giagtzoglou had at least eight fake identity cards and a number of safe houses in the Athens area. The most recent of these discoveries is a ground-floor apartment in the neighborhood of Exarchia that forensics teams were going over on Tuesday.

It is thought that the suspect was planning to use this property – leased online under a false name for the October 26-31 period – as a safe house for another attack.

Police reportedly arrested Giagtzoglou on Saturday as he was coming out of another safe house in the area of Acharnon carrying weapons and explosives devices that he was allegedly taking to the Exarchia flat.

Searches on at least two more properties linked to the suspect have allegedly brought to light a plethora of incriminating evidence, including computers, memory sticks and stickers with the printed addresses of Papademos’s office as well as other targets.