Afghan linked to criminal case, no ties to terrorism

Police investigating an Afghan man who was arrested in central Athens on Saturday carrying dozens of detonators in a backpack say he is implicated in a criminal case while a parallel probe into possible links to guerrilla groups has yet to yield any incriminating evidence. 

Police sources told Kathimerini that the suspect has been linked to a case that is not connected to terrorism but to a criminal affair being probed by Attica police. 

The man, who has been charged four times for being in Greece illegally, had been carrying his application for political asylum at the time of his arrest.

According to police sources, that document states he is 19 years old though police believe he is over 30. 

Officers are probing whether the suspect might have been carrying the detonators for a guerrilla group.

He is thought to have links to a squat in Exarchia, central Athens, fueling suspicions he may have been a “courier” for the anarchist group running the squat.