WASHINGTON - The US State Department on Tuesday designated jailed Greek guerilla group members Christodoulos Xiros and Nikolaos Maziotis as terrorists, a day after protesting a new law approved by Greece’s parliament.
‘As a result of these designations, all property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which Xiros and Maziotis have any interest is blocked and any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen,’ the State Department said in a statement. The United States on Monday expressed concern over the government-backed measure that paves the way for Xiros’ brother, Savvas, currently serving multiple life terms for his role in the Marxist guerrilla group November 17, to be released from jail and put under house arrest.
The law allows disabled inmates injured in a 2002 failed bomb attack and suffering from sclerosis to be placed under house arrest.
Christodoulos Xiros, 56, also a member of the now-defunct November 17 group, is serving multiple life terms for his role in attacks that killed Greek, American and British diplomats.
He escaped from prison in January 2014, prompting calls from the United States for Greece to use all means to apprehend him. Maziotis, 42, was charged in 2010 over a series of attacks claimed by the Revolutionary Struggle group, including firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. embassy in Athens in 2007 and a 2009 car bomb that damaged the Athens stock exchange. He had been on the run since 2012 and was arrested in July 2014.
Revolutionary Struggle was set up in 2003 and declared war on all forms of government. It later said it was protesting against austerity measures imposed during Greece’s financial crisis that forced thousands out of work and plunged the economy into a deep recession. The group had been considered dismantled in 2010, but in April 2014 it claimed a car bombing at a central bank building.