Greek prosecutor charge five for terrorist ties

ATHENS - A Greek public prosecutor charged five people, including a German woman, for involvement in a terrorist group, just days before the start of a trial of dozens of radical anarchists.

Police said suspects arrested were believed to be involved in the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei terrorist group that was behind a series of parcel bombs sent to European leaders and embassies, in addition to a bomb explosion outside an Athens court house last month.

All five suspects have been charged with participation in a terrorist group and possession of weapons.

Officials of the police anti-terrorism unit seized the 27-year-old German woman in Athens’ Perissos district, a day after police arrested four suspects in the ongoing crackdown against terror suspects.

“She was arrested in connection with terrorist activity,” a police official told DPA.

Further details were not given.

The arrests come just days before the Jan 17 trial of more than a dozen suspects for alleged involvement in the group.

Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei has limited its activities to arson and minor bombs attacks against government buildings and the offices and homes of politicians.

Greek police have also recently arrested several suspected extremists of the far-left organization Revolutionary Struggle.

Revolutionary Struggle emerged in 2003 and has carried out over a dozen attacks, including a rocket strike against the US embassy in Athens three years ago and a powerful bomb attack against the Athens Stock Exchange last year.

Greece has a long history with domestic terrorism, which has left more than 40 people dead in the last three decades, including a British military attache, a CIA station chief, police officers, journalists and businessmen.