British experts in Athens this week to help combat resurgent terrorism, crime wave
[ekathimerini.com] Counter-terrorism experts from Britain’s Scotland Yard, who helped
Greek authorities break up the left-wing militant group November 17 in
2003, are due back in Athens today to advise their Greek counterparts
on how to tackle an emerging terror threat and burgeoning crime in the
capital, it has emerged.
Sources have told Kathimerini that the
appeal to Scotland Yard was made by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis
last week following an upsurge in domestic terrorist attacks and street
violence.
The British delegation is expected to provide advice on
restructuring Greece’s counter-terrorism unit and to recommend tactics
for curbing the spiralling lawlessness that has taken over the capital
since the police killing of a teenager in central Exarchia last
December.
Christos Kalamatianos, a Briton of Greek origin who
worked with Greek police to disband November 17, will again be offering
his expertise to Greek counterparts. Scotland Yard’s chief Sir Ian
Blair, one of the world’s top counter-terrorism experts, is also
expected to visit Athens over the next few days to provide his insight
into the problem.
The British police delegation is expected to
focus on helping Greek counterparts tackle an emerging terror threat.
This will be the priority, as it is feared that established terror
group Revolutionary Struggle and the newly emerged Sect of
Revolutionaries have recruited new members since the December riots and
have acquired large quantities of arms and explosives.
But the
British experts are also expected to offer advice on how to curb
so-called “low-level terrorism,” such as the vandalism of stores and
cars in central Athens and Thessaloniki last Friday and a crime wave
that has resulted in almost daily robberies.
The arrival of the
British officers is also expected to resurrect an investigation into
the case of the “Seisidis brothers” who are believed to have planned
and carried out an armed robbery of a central Athens bank in January
2006, which resulted in the injury of one of the perpetrators.
Source: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100002_16/03/2009_105545
