ATHENS, 20 July — Greek police yesterday charged Alexandros Giotopoulos, the suspected leader of the November 17 guerrilla group, with the murder of five Greek businessmen and politicians.
Lefteris Economou, a police spokesman said there was overwhelming evidence of the suspect’s guilt.
"Giotopoulos denied the charges but the evidence from the initial questioning shows his participation in the November 17 guerrilla group and what is more in a leading-guiding role."
The evidence includes documents in Giotopoulos’s handwriting referring to murders committed by the group and his fingerprints at November 17 safehouses filled with rockets and remote-controlled bombs.
Giotopoulos, 58, who says he was once a maths professor, has denied being either a member or a leader of November 17. Police are questioning his French wife.
Two other men, Vissilis Tzortzatos, a 47-year-old electrician, and Theologos Psaradelis, a 59-year-old retired printer, were also charged.
Tzortsatos confessed to taking part in the killing of five people, including the Greek MP Pavlos Bakoyannis in September 1989 and businessmen Dimitris Angelopoulos in April 1986 and Alexandros Athanasiadis.
He has also admitted dozens of rocket and bomb attacks against American military and businesses, and the attempted murder of a Turkish diplomat in 1991, according to police.
Psaradelis has confessed to taking part in one bank robbery.
Olympic organizers welcomed the arrests of November 17 suspects as "enormously encouraging", amid fears security fear for the 2004 games in Athens.
"It is testament to all the hard work that has been going on behind the scenes," said Giselle Davies, spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee.
November 17 is named after the day in 1973 that a right-wing military junta, which ruled from 1967-74, sent tanks into the Athens Polytechnic School to crush a student revolt. (The Independent)
