Galery

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In the words of the father, Andreas "is an anarchist by ideology, but has nothing to do with terrorism. He is an anarchist, as is our entire family. He has nothing to do with terrorism. Even when I saw him yesterday, he said, "I do not believe that they said that I had something to do with the "nuclei". When I told him that the allegations state this, he literally exploded", he told Ethnos newspaper.

The fact that his son and his associates used an arsenal of heavy weapons during the robbery in Velvendo does not seem to bother Andreas’ father. "They had these weapons for intimidation. I do not think my son can use a weapon. When this happened in Paros (the armed robbery, during which a taxi driver was killed – author’s note), Andreas told me that the attackers were idiots. If you have an ideology and kill even one man, you actually renounce your ideology. These were his words".

Andreas's sister, Angeliki Bourzoukous was a witness in the first trial against members of "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei". She and her brother said then that the police had been watching their family. According to the latest data, Andreas’ fingerprints were found in the group's hiding place that had been revealed in the Athens suburb of Halandri in 2009.

Today, Ioannis Michailidis and Dimitris Politis have been transported to Athens to appear before the public prosecutor in connection with the old arrest warrants issued against them. Right after that, they will be returned to Kozani, where they along with Nikos Romanos and Andreas - Dimitris Bourzoukous will appear before the magistrate on Wednesday in connection with the robbery in Velvendo.

Special police forces have been investigating the region of Kozani in order to find the other participants in the bank robbery, who escaped by the jeep of the hostage dentist. According to them, the terrorists are likely to be hiding in the Vermio Mountain, where winter weather conditions are severe. Therefore, they think that finding them is a matter of time.

The chain of events has not yet ended. The links are being made one after another, explaining previous attacks including the most recent one on "The Mall Athens".

Since last night, members of the anti-terrorist forces have been investigating a flat in the Maroussi neighbourhood, not far from the target of the bombing. Sources say that the friend of the murdered Alexis, Nikos Romanos, rented the flat about a month ago, using a fake identity card for the purpose. Authorities believe that the flat was the hiding place of the members of the "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei".

Photo: ethnos.gr

So far, a large number of fired cartridges, evidence of falsification of private documents and two multifunctional printing devices have been found in the flat. Although no weapons and manifestos have been found, the police do not exclude the possibility of the people who put the bomb in the shopping centre having left and returned to this particular flat.

According to sources, the authorities found the flat due to the publication of the attackers’ photographs. They uploaded them on the official web site of the police on the orders of the prosecutor.

They have scars of beating on them, which has provoked new debates. The main opposition SYRIZA party issued a message, accusing the police of exercising violence against detainees. The Minister of Citizen Protection Nikos Dendias responded very clearly by saying that the police had exercised the necessary and perfectly legitimate violence to block, disarm and make harmless the heavily armed attackers. However, SYRIZA, the Communist Party and the partner in the ruling coalition, the Democratic Left, are demanding an investigation of the case.

The issue has provoked fierce debate in the social media as well. Part of the Greek society, which sees the actions of the authorities as attempts to limit and why not destroy this type of terrorism, defines the reactions of leftist parties as hypocrisy. Their supporters, who interpreted the destruction in December 2008 as a "Youth Revolution", oppose the "police brutality". However, they have not been able to explain to this day what the murder of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos , who was also a child brought up in wealth and not deprived of anything and who "drove" them to cause the devastation of downtown Athens, had "unlocked" in them.

Liberals and those who claim to belong to the political centre also oppose the beating by the police. The debates and especially the extreme and firm positions are more than indicative of the way part of the Greek society perceives the "activity" of the "rebel youth".

The Athens prosecutor's office has ordered an investigation in connection with the allegations of unlawful exercise of violence by the police. It is worth noting that at least two of the defenders of the attackers in Velvendo defended some of the defendants accused of involvement in the "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei".