Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09ATHENS1679
2009-12-04 15:21:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Athens
Cable title:  

GREEK COURT OVERTURNS CONVICTIONS OF ELA TERRORIST GROUP

Tags:  PTER PREL PGOV GR 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO7917
OO RUEHAG RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR
DE RUEHTH #1679/01 3381521
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O R 041521Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1181
INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 001679 

SIPDIS
AMEMBASSY ANKARA PASS TO AMCONSUL ADANA
AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO AMCONSUL ALMATY
AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL LEIPZIG
AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PASS TO AMEMBASSY PODGORICA
AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG
AMEMBASSY ATHENS PASS TO AMCONSUL THESSALONIKI
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/12/04
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV GR
SUBJECT: GREEK COURT OVERTURNS CONVICTIONS OF ELA TERRORIST GROUP
MEMBERS

REF: 05 ATHENS 1775; 04 ATHENS 3870; 04 ATHENS 148

CLASSIFIED BY: Daniel V. Speckhard, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)

Summary

------------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 001679

SIPDIS
AMEMBASSY ANKARA PASS TO AMCONSUL ADANA
AMEMBASSY ASTANA PASS TO AMCONSUL ALMATY
AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
AMEMBASSY BERLIN PASS TO AMCONSUL LEIPZIG
AMEMBASSY BELGRADE PASS TO AMEMBASSY PODGORICA
AMEMBASSY HELSINKI PASS TO AMCONSUL ST PETERSBURG
AMEMBASSY ATHENS PASS TO AMCONSUL THESSALONIKI
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL VLADIVOSTOK
AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PASS TO AMCONSUL YEKATERINBURG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/12/04
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV GR
SUBJECT: GREEK COURT OVERTURNS CONVICTIONS OF ELA TERRORIST GROUP
MEMBERS

REF: 05 ATHENS 1775; 04 ATHENS 3870; 04 ATHENS 148

CLASSIFIED BY: Daniel V. Speckhard, Ambassador; REASON: 1.4(B),(D)

Summary

--------------


1. (SBU) On December 3, 2009, a Greek appeals court threw out the
2004 convictions of three members of the People's Revolutionary
Struggle (ELA) terrorist organization, ruling there was
insufficient evidence. A fourth defendant died in June 2009. The
ELA members were cleared of all charges for which they were
initially convicted: the 1994 killing of a police officer, as well
as 48 attempted murders by bombing, and 42 bomb attacks and
attempted bombings. The ruling, which dismayed Greek police
officers and was largely ignored by most of the Greek public,
underscored fundamental weaknesses in the Greek judicial system's
ability to obtain and uphold terrorism convictions. End Summary.



The Background

--------------


2. (U) During the original ELA trial that ended in October 2004,
the four defendants, civil engineer Christos Tsigaridas, former
mayor of Kimolos island Aggeletos Kanas, civil engineer Costas
Agapiou, and travel agency employee Irini Athanassaki, were found
guilty of complicity in the 1994 assassination of police officer
Apostolos Vellios, as well as in 48 attempted murders associated
with exploding bombs, and 42 bomb attacks and attempted bombing.
Some of the bomb attacks targeted U.S.-affiliated business targets.
The prosecution's case was based on testimony of Sophia Kyriakidou,
the ex-wife of Kanas, who described Kanas and others as members of
ELA and the May 1 terror cell. At the end of the first trial, all
four defendants received 25-year prison terms. Within months,
three out of the four had been released pending appeal, following

petitions to the court. Agapiou, who refused to submit a petition,
remained in prison although suffering from cancer. He was later
released on health grounds, and died at home.




3. (U) Prosecutors tried the same suspects as well as others in a
separate trial in 2005, specifically focused on bomb attacks
against Greek government buildings (which had been excluded form
the initial trial). All the defendants were acquitted for lack of
evidence (ref A).




4. (U) In October 2008, an appeals court began its review of both
the 2004 and 2005 rulings, which had been appealed by the losing
side in each case. Kyriakidou (who had also allegedly provided
information to police about the early days of the November 17
terrorist organization) appeared twice in the appeals trial. Her
testimony was severely questioned by defense lawyers, and the
defendants largely evaded questions and made no confessions. The
defense termed the Vellios murder "regrettable" and insisted the
defendants had nothing to do with it. As in the two earlier
trials, the defendants and their attorneys delivered ideological
rants before the court, with Tsigiaridas closing the appeals trial
with a diatribe against bourgeois regimes and the principle of
collective responsibility (something the lower court had opened the
door to by citing it as one of the reasons for the guilty verdict).




Comment

--------------


5. (C) This decision clears the remaining ELA defendants of all
charges. Given this and the Greek statute of limitations, it seems
very likely that there will be no sustained convictions of anyone
in connection with one of Greece's most prolific terrorist groups.

ATHENS 00001679 002 OF 002


Greek police contacts have indicated to us that they are dismayed
by the results, stressing that the police arrested the ELA members
but the judges and prosecutors were unable to keep them behind
bars. This is another indication of the weakness of the Greek
judicial system in prosecuting cases of this type, something
Embassy Athens noted repeatedly during the initial trials (reftels
provide a sample). In fact, the Embassy was genuinely surprised at
the tough sentences the defendants received in the first trial,
given the manner in which the prosecution and trial were conducted.
In the appeals trial as well, the defense had relatively free rein
to engage in theatrics. The appeals trial received fairly little
attention in Greece and the verdict seems to have provoked little
controversy. Even the earlier statement by Tsigaridas admitting he
was an ELA member and assuming "political responsibility" for some
of the group's actions went largely unnoticed. The most
commented-on development this year came outside the courtroom, when
the new terrorist group Sect of Revolutionaries ambushed and killed
a Greek police officer on protection detail outside Kyriakadou's
apartment building. The weaknesses in the judicial system and the
lack of political pressure to fix them remain major challenges to
Greece in dealing with the recent round of attacks by the successor
groups to ELA and November 17.
Speckhard