Greek police said they believe that escaped terrorist Nikos Maziotis, who claimed responsibility for last month’s car bomb attack outside a Bank of Greece office in Athens, also led a bank robbery in the Peloponnese.
Citing the results of forensic tests, they said it was likely Maziotis, self-styled leader of the guerrilla group Revolutionary Struggle, was one of two gunmen who took part in the robbery of a Piraeus Bank in the village of Kleitoria, Achaia that left a police officer wounded.
He has been at large with his partner, Panayiota Roupa, since they were released in July 2012 after serving an 18-month maximum detention period because they hadn’t been brought to trial.
Greek terrorist groups have used bank robberies to fund their activities. Police didn’t confirm the DNA on the bullet casing was Maziotis’ as he refused to give a sample when he was arrested in April 2010, and it was not explained why he wasn’t compelled to do so.
There is a one million euro reward for information that leads to the arrest of Maziotis and Roupa and another one million for another escaped terrorist, Christodoulos Xiros, who vanished after being given a Christmas vacation furlough from a high-security prison where he was serving six life sentences for his role in the killing of six people committed by the now-defunct notorious November 17 terrorist group.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
