Greek police 'close' to arresting leaders of terrorist group

Greek authorities are poised to unmask the leaders of November 17 (17N), one of the West's deadliest terrorist organisations, after 27 years without an arrest.

Greek police, with the help of Scotland Yard, have evidence linking suspects in the assassination of 17N's first victim, the CIA bureau chief Richard Welch in 1975, to the drive-by murder of the British defence attache Stephen Saunders two years ago, according to sources close to the investigation.

"We know the names of the three-four persons who are the founding nucleus of 17N and we are waiting only to collect evidence which will be acceptable in court," a security source told the Greek newspaper To Vima. "The leader is approximately 65 years old and believed to have taken part in the killing of the Athens director CIA, Richard Welch," the source added.

Mr Saunders was the 23rd victim of 17N, an extreme leftwing group that attacks prominent Greek, American, European and Turkish diplomatic and military personnel. Much credit is given to Scotland Yard anti-terrorist experts in the effort to find the killers after nearly three decades of failure by Greek police.

An editorial in the Greek tabloid To Karfi said: "The British Scotland Yard, being more methodical, started from the beginning, looked at all the people who were related to the very first assassination and possibly other unclaimed attacks. Their collection of evidence led to the leader of November 17."

In an interview with the Eleftheros Typos newspaper yesterday, Michalis Chrysochoidia, the Greek Justice Minister, refused to comment on the investigation.

To Vima quotes an unnamed foreign agent close to the case as saying that arrests are imminent. "I could compare the situation to a submarine, with the target in its sights, the torpedo tubes full and ready to launch and the crew just awaiting the order to fire."

To Karfi goes further than other newspapers to claim that the "first among equals" in the leadership of the shadowy group is a Greek intellectual and former member of a non-parliamentary Trotskyist group who lives between France and Greece.

All sources deny the list of suspects contains any well-known political or cultural figures, defusing speculation that 17N, named after the date of the 1973 uprising by students against the American-backed military dictatorship, has clear links to past or present Greek governments.

In January, Thomas Niles, a former US ambassador to Greece, claimed on the CBS programme 60 Minutes that links between the ruling Pasok party and November 17 had prevented arrests being made.

The claims by the American diplomat, made on the eve of the first visit to Washington by Costas Simitis, the Greek Prime Minister have been strongly denied by the administration in Athens.

* Police believe a time-bomb explosion that seriously injured a man at the Athens port of Piraeus may be connected to a domestic terrorist group and not November 17. The injured man, who lost part of a hand, is thought to have been carrying the bomb.