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Greece declares victory over November 17 group

Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Wednesday, July 24, 2002

ATHENS Ñ Greece asserts that it has shut down the activities of the November 17 insurgency group.

The government of Prime Minister Costas Simitis said it has neutralized November 17 and the group no longer poses a threat to Greek security.

Officials said the lion's share of members have been arrested, including leaders of the insurgency group.

"Through systematic and methodical effort, with respect for the fundamental rights of Greek citizens, democratic legitimacy, the constitution and the law we have dealt a severe blow to the November 17 terrorist organization," Greek Public Order Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis said on Tuesday. "The case of November 17 and of all terrorism in Greece will close for the state only when it is absolutely certain that all those responsible are led to justice."

Officials said the apparent dismantling of November 17 has removed a key threat from the Olympic Games planned in Athens in 2004. Several NATO allies, particularly Britain and the United States, have warned that they would not participate in the games unless November 17 members are found and detained.

Chrysohoidis told a news conference in Athens that 10 people have been arrested on suspicion of being linked with November 17. The minister said although more members could be at large those detained comprise a "significant portion of the organization."

Officials said authorities are searching for five other members of November 17. They said the most important fugitive is Dimitris Koufodinas, regarded as the operations planner of the group and responsible for logistics.

Officials said they are holding several suspected leaders of the organization, including Alexandros Giotopoulos. Giotopoulos has denied that he is a leading member of the insurgency group, which has killed 23 people since 1975. Four of those killed were U.S. officials.

Another suspected November 17 insurgent was identified as Costas Telios. Telios, detained in Thessaloniki, is a 40-year-old school teacher who was said to have confessed to helping steal 100 anti-tank rockets from an army depot in 1989.

Telios was one of nine November 17 suspects in custody that confessed to participating in 13 killings. At least nine deaths attributed to the group remain unsolved.

Officials said November 17, said to have been racked by ideological disputes and defections in the late 1970s, was planning a large scale attack over the next few months. They included an ambush of a convoy of U.S. soldiers heading for the NATO force in Kosovo. They said the insurgency group had prepared anti-tank rockets, mines and explosives for the attack on the convoy.

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