Greek police is investigating the involvement of six or seven people they suspect were acting with Nikos Maziotis, the leader of the Revolutionary Struggle urban guerrilla group, who was arrested following a shootout in central Athens on Wednesday.
The anti-terrorist squad will visit Maziotis in hospital today trying to gather more information, as they believe that Maziotis and his alleged accomplices were planning another terrorist strike in Athens within the next 10 to 15 days.
Ballistic tests revealed, however, that the handgun Maziotis used to fire at police had not been used in a previous criminal or terrorist act.
Members of the anti-terrorist squad raided apartments in Exarchia, Voula, Pangrati and other Athens areas in search of clues and people who are believed to have links to Maziotis. Sources within the police force said that the search was focusing on specific areas but also places that anti-establishment activists were known to frequent, as well as specific individuals that might yield clues regarding the identity of his accomplices.
Maziotis had been sighted using the Kifissia-Piraeus electric railway (ISAP) and traveling to central Athens in the days before his arrest.
Greek Police also found a receipt from The Mall in Maroussi, northern Athens, in Maziotis’s possession when he was arrested. It showed that he had bought some clothes from a store at the shopping center about an hour before he was caught in Monastiraki. This reinforces the belief that he was using ISAP to get around. As a result, officers are focusing their efforts to find his hideout close to ISAP stations.
Public Order Minister of Greece, Vasilis Kikilias also revealed that Maziotis had been spotted at Omonia station by a 25-year-old female member of the anti-terrorist squad, who then called for backup. The counterterrorism squad’s operation to arrest fugitive terrorist Nikos Maziotis in downtown Athens did not take place by accident, Public Order Minister Vassilis Kikilias told Mega TV on Thursday.
The minister said that police has launched an operation code-named “Theseus” in downtown Athens,which involves more than 800 officers. He also expressed appreciation on behalf of the prime minister to the counterterrorism squad officer that was originally tailing Maziotis.
Kikilias said new developments are expected in the investigation, noting that a major operation is underway. Police are now hunting for Maziotis’ partner Pola Roupa, who also violated the terms of her release from custody and fled with Maziotis 21 months earlier. Both had been jailed on remand pending trial and released after the maximum 18-month period for detention on remand had expired.
Counterterrorism squad detectives also managed to find the taxi driver whose taxi Maziotis had used in his attempt to escape, tracking him down in the west Athens district of Peristeri, Greece.
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