The Greek police believe that the four foreign nationals detained during yesterday's operation of the anti-terrorism unit in a block of flats on Gennadiou street in Gizi are members of the operational wing of an extreme left terrorist group from Turkey called DHKP-C (Revolutionary People's Liberation Party - Front). They are Turkish citizens whose documents are however false. According to sources, they had presented themselves as Georgian citizens and the procedure for establishing their identity in cooperation with the Turkish authorities had continued until late last night.
In any case, it seems that the anti-terrorism officers are aware of the identity of the four detainees and describe them as members of the operational wing of the terrorist group. Sources claim that there is evidence connecting one of them, who is wanted by Interpol, with a bloody terrorist attack in Turkey.
According to the police, the two rasided flats at 43 Gennadiou street had been rented for more than three months, and the secret operation of the Greek authorities that found a hidden arsenal of the group, had lasted for many days. Tenants in the building said that some of the detainees had lived there for about a year and a half and that, according to their own statements, they had worked as painters. A tenant in the building told the police that she had seen the detainees going in and out of the building, carrying suitcases and bags with unknown contents.
In the two flats on Gennadiou street the police have found the following items: one "Kalashnikov" gun, three magazines, three pistols, one silencer, two submachine guns, bullets of different calibres, 6.3 kg of plastic explosives, two F1 type grenades, three computers, maps of Athens, Alexandroupolis and Turkey, berets with DHKP-C logo and pictures of the group.
It was not clear until late last night whether the detainees in Gizi are associated with the three Turkish nationals arrested in Chios in the summer and charged with attempted transportation of weapons and explosives to Turkey, namely Mehmed Yaila, aged 34, Hassan Bieber, aged 55, and a Turkish citizen nicknamed "Kostas", aged 54, who are in a special wing of Korydallos prison at present. The requests for the extradition of Yaila Bieber (accused by Turkey of involvement in an attack with grenades against the Ministry of Justice in Ankara in March 2013) had been rejected by a decision of the Supreme Court of Greece on 15 November 2013 whereas the request for the extradition of the so-called "Kostas" was presented to the Greek authorities only a week ago, after the "thriller" with the extradition of former head of TT Hellenic Postbank Angelos Filipidis. According to unconfirmed information, the investigation had revealed data showing that the weapons seized on the island of Chios had been purchased from Crete. On Saturday, the police apprehended on the island a Turkish woman, aged 44, for involvement in DHKP-C.
Meanwhile, Kostas Sakas, who is suspected of involvement in the terrorist group "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei", had failed to appear at the police station in Kamini, as he was supposed to.
Now the police are searching for him because he has violated the restrictive measures imposed on him, stating that Sakas has been wanted since midnight.
The investigator heard in January Kostas Sakas whose fingerprints had been allegedly found in the group's hideaway in the neighbourhood of Halandri.
The authorities imposed on the accused a cash bail to the amount of 5,000 euro and a restraining order prohibiting him from leaving the region of Attica and the country, and requiring him to appear at the police station of residence every Monday.
In addition, he was banned from getting in touch with the other defendants in the case of "Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei" and his passport and identity card were confiscated.
Kostas Sakas denies his involvement in the terrorist group in any way, claiming in connection with his fingerprints found on two bags of a department store that they were found on movable objects and cannot be considered as evidence.
As to the other defendants in the case, who have assumed responsibility for involvement in the group, he states he has only friendly and social contacts with them.