Armed group members face trial
A prosecutor has recommended that three suspects be tried for membership in an armed leftist group, armed robbery and attempted murder.
Two of the three, Vangelis Stathopoulos and Dionyssis Bakas, were arrested after a robbery at a betting shop in the Athens suburb of Holargos. The third, Dimitris Hatzivassiliadis, who was injured during the robbery, is still at large. All three are alleged members of the armed leftist group “Revolutionary Self-Defense.”
It was Stathopoulos and Hatzivassiliadis who robbed the betting shop on October 21, 2019, getting away with 1,906 euros. But, as they made their getaway, Stathopoulos, in handing the AK-47 assault rifle they used to Hatzivassiliadis, accidentally pulled the trigger and shot him in the foot.
Stathopoulos took the injured man to Bakas’ house nearby for first aid, using a stolen bike the two had used to go to the shop. He then went to the Sismanogleio Hospital in Maroussi where he got instructions from a nurse he knew about how to treat the wound.
Hatzivassiliadis later went to the hospital himself but decided against checking in and left, while Stathopoulos and Bakas later that night retrieved five plastic bags with guns and ammunition from a house they used as a hideaway and took them to Bakas’ house.
