GREECE: Greece scored a key success against the guerrilla group November 17 yesterday, when a top member who had been on the run for more than two months turned himself in, police said.
Mr Dimitris Koufontinas (44), believed to be the group's chief operative, is suspected by security sources of having taken part in most of the group's attacks between 1975 and 2000, which claimed the lives of 23 people, mainly in bombings.
Mr Koufontinas, a former beekeeper, showed up voluntarily yesterday at the Athens national security office and was arrested.
A warrant for his arrest was issued on July 15th, a month after the arrest of a first suspected member of the group, which led to a series of other breakthroughs that effectively put the group out of action, according to police.
The semi-official news agency ANA reported that intense negotiations between the police and Mr Koufontinas had taken place in recent days, with the aim of getting the suspect to surrender.
November 17 is named for the date of an abortive student uprising against a US-backed military regime that ruled Greece in the 1970s.
In addition to assassinations, the group is blamed for more than 50 rocket attacks on buildings and a series of armed bank robberies.
Its campaign of violence began in 1975 when it assassinated CIA station chief Richard Welch in Athens. - (AFP)