Two terror group suspects remanded amid probe
Two of the three suspects arrested on Saturday on charges of being members of the Revolutionary Self-Defense terror group were remanded in custody on Tuesday after testifying before an examining magistrate.
The suspects, 41-year-old Evangelos Stathopoulos and Dionysios Bakas, 45, were arrested during a sweeping counterterrorism operation in Athens.
Both men denied that they had been involved in five attacks on the PASOK party headquarters in Athens and three attacks targeting the embassies of Mexico and France. Police have also identified a third suspect, 46-year-old Dimitris Hatzivasiliadis, who remains at large.
The third suspect arrested on Saturday, a 39-year-old woman, will appear before a magistrate on Monday, November 25.
During Saturday’s operation police raided 13 houses and seized five AK-47 assault rifles, a submachine gun, two pistols, detonators, dynamite, TNT and grenades.
Police got on the trail of the suspects after they carried out an armed robbery at a betting shop in the Athens suburb of Holargos on October 21, during which Hatzivasiliadis was injured.
Apart from the charge of participating in a terror group, the suspects also face charges for two counts of attempted murder of a police officer, the manufacture and possession of explosives, unlawful possession of a firearm, and drug charges.
