Suspected members of a Greek guerrilla group walked out of the courtroom where their trial was being heard today and said they would go on hunger strike in protest over how it is conducted.
The trial of 13 suspected members of the Conspiracy of Fire Cells, which has claimed a spate of bomb attacks since 2009 including a wave of parcel bombs in November, started a week ago under high security within the walls of an Athens prison.
Today, the three judges said in a packed courtroom that they would not satisfy the defendants' demands to scrap security checks for people coming to watch the proceedings.
The defendants then left main courtroom and fired their lawyers in protest, demanding that the court appoints no one to represent them. "Even if our bodies are trapped, we are still free to fight," one of the defendants said.
The six who are being held in custody during trial were then taken back to their cells, where they said they said would go on hunger strike.
Nine of the suspects were in the courtroom, while another four are still on the run and are being tried in absentia. The suspects, aged 18 to 31, have been charged with participating in the Cells.
Later, police evacuated the courtroom using their batons after the audience protested the court's decision to remove one person who was shouting in the courtroom.
This is the first time since the Socialists came to power in October 2009 vowing to crack down on leftist violence that suspected urban guerrilla group members stand trial.
Police have arrested more than 20 suspected members of guerrilla groups -- mainly the Conspiracy of Fire Cells and Revolutionary Struggle -- in the last two years, but this has not prevented them from carrying out further attacks.
Weeks before the trial, the Conspiracy of Fire Cells group bombed an Athens court house, damaging the building and shattering the windows of nearby buildings and wrecked at least eight cars.
Reuters