Greece: Anarchists Claim Bomb Detonated Outside the Home of A Ranking Hellenic Police Officer
Greece: Anarchists Claim Bomb Detonated Outside the Home of A Ranking Hellenic Police Officer
Claim Threatens to Shoot Investigating Magistrate
On June 1st, anarchists in Greece calling themselves “Group ’Revenge Rebels’” took responsibility for what both the claim’s author(s) and Greek media called an improvised “explosive device” (IED) planted outside the home of a Second Lieutenant of the Hellenic Police on March 18th in the northern Athens municipality of Melissia. This is unusual for the current generation of anarchist urban guerrillas in Greece; most of their attacks have consisted of the familiar Molotov cocktail arson, as well as barrages of Molotovs against MAT police, and arson using improvised incendiary devices (IID) constructed from butane gas canisters, other pressurized gases such as propane and occasionally from containers of liquid fuels ignited by large firecrackers—both of which can have quite the effect and are potentially lethal if anyone is in the immediate vicinity of the blast. However, the majority of these previous IIDs have been placed in the early morning hours and their claims have not been as explicit about killing or causing bodily harm as this claim was.
According to the claim’s author(s), the Second Lieutenant was targeted in the attack because he was allegedly the “leader of the OPKE[1] team” that transferred accused bank robber, Fotis Tziotzis, to the interrogator’s office after his arrest and initial detention in 2021.
We take responsibility for the explosive device in the house of Second Lieutenant […] in Melissia, who was the leader of the OPKE team, on 18/3/22, during the transfer of our comrade Fotis Tziotzis to the interrogator, after his arrest for bank expropriations in the summer in Athens. The specific cop, after the adventure with the attempt of abduction of his weapon by the partner that happened outside the interrogator's office, ran to testify against the partner, as a result of which he was charged with additional charges.
The claim then goes on to threaten an investigating magistrate by name—possibly the same interrogator who questioned Tziotzis.
Maybe this time you were lucky or we were unlucky that the explosive device did not explode in your apartment building, but next time it will be with bullets that will definitely find their target. [2]
POWER AND FREEDOM TO ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS.
COMPETITIVE GREETINGS TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE CHOSEN THE ROAD TO FREEDOM.
LET'S ATTACK ALL TOGETHER.
GROUP “REVENGE REBELS”
[1] OPKE is the Hellenic Police force’s Rapid Response Teams.
[2] Emphasis mine.