After releasing them on furloughs from which they walked away, there is now a 4 million euros ($5.4 million) reward being put up by an embarrassed Greek government for information that would lead to the capture of two terrorists who are fugitives, one of whom has been taunting the authorities and vowing to kill political leaders.
The announcement came from Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said he would move to stop furloughs being given murderers by a three-person board whose names are being withheld pending an investigation into why they allowed November 17 terrorist Christodoulos Xeros to have a Christmas vacation from prison, six months after another convicted terrorist, Nikos Maziotis, walked away from his summer leave from jail.
Dendias said Jan. 22 more details would be announced and whether the reward would extend to other fugitives, the Associated Press reported, 28 of them who didn’t return from furloughs and as more kept being given anyway.
Greek authorities have been conducting a nationwide manhunt since Jan. 7 when Xeros, a 55-year-old serving six life sentences for carrying out killings as part of the November 17 group, vanished.
He appeared in a video posted on the Internet vowing a return to attacks and said he would target the coalition government of Samaras’ New Democracy Conservatives and his partner, the PASOK Socialists, for what the terrorist deemed treason and for which he said the penalty was death.
He said he was angry that the government had imposed austerity measures on the orders of international lenders putting up $325 billion in two bailouts to prop up the country’s dormant economy.
In 2012, a married couple suspected of belonging to another militant group vanished following their release from jail after serving the maximum 18 months in pre-trial detention.
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