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Revolutionary Struggle trial update,
Session 20,
Monday 30/4/12
With the beginning of the procedure, the chairman read out the list of the prosecution witnesses who had not appeared in previous sessions and were re-summoned, as well as the list of the new witnesses (all were proposed by the three members of the RS, except for one who was summoned by the prosecutor), who the court decided to summon after loads of trouble. From the first category, 4 out of the 19 witnesses were present, while from the second category, 9 out of 15 were present. Which means, that out of 30 summoned witnesses only 13 appeared, while 2 more it was claimed now have an unknown address.
Dimitrios Tsimogiannis appeared accompanied by his daughter, who –as she said- helps him, because he has health problems. As it was proven, however, the lady in question didn’t need to help him at all, while the witness unsuccessfully pretended to not hear! Unsuccessfully, because he could hear phrases spoken at a low volume and pretended he couldn’t hear other phrases which were spoken more loudly.
This specific witness presented himself as an injured from the cancelled attempt against Voulgarakis. What was proven however? That when the explosion took place he was in his car quite further away, that after the explosion he himself parked his car at the end of the road, accompanied the cops to GADA (athens police headquarters), where he gave a statement with amazing details (he mentioned how many people he met in his neighbourhood that day), then he went back home and in the afternoon he went to a hospital, where they examined him and did not hospitalize him. Then he visited other hospitals, at which he claimed dizziness, tinnitus etc. They found nothing anywhere, no hospital would admit him. All he got was a six day leave, after which he returned to work. Even the forensic examiner wrote that ‘he mentions dizziness, tinnitus and temporary amnesia’. He mentioned them; they did not result from an examination.
When he saw that the state hospitals would not brand him injured, so he can a pension as a ‘victim of terrorism’, he turned to psychiatrics and finally got diagnosis from doctors (not state hospitals) that he suffers from distress because of post-traumatic stress, while in the end a military commission found him 67% disabled, as a result of an injury from a terrorist attack! “I hope the troika does not take the pension back”, commented sarcastically advocate S.Fitrakis.
Even more provocative was his compensation for the car. While he himself in his first testimony had claimed that the doors were a bit scratched (the car was 5 years old, almost new), today he testified that the car was considered completely destroyed and he was compensated for its value. And what was proven? That he was not compensated by the insurance company, but the municipality, from the special funds for ‘victims of terrorism’! If there was an injury from an action of the RS, I would apologize, commented P.Roupa. Reading, however, his statement right after the incident, with so many details (she read out excerpts from his statement in GADA), I doubt if he was even in the area. Wherever there were injuries, besides the fact it wasn’t the organizations fault for their injuries, they went straight to the hospital. They didn’t go to GADA, return home and then remembered to also visit a hospital. If we suppose that the witness had a psychological shock, he wouldn’t be able to give a testimony with so many details. To speak of amnesia and having testified everything!
The only thing not mentioned in his testimony, commented M.Daliani, is that something happened to him. Cop Ananias, who was also there, and Voulgarakis, testified that nothing happened to anyone. The witnesses tried afterwards to fix a medical file so he can get a pension.
Someone could say that the witness has a dramatic talent, commented N.Maziotis. He could hear very well, but pretended he couldn’t hear. What kind of injured person moves their car goes to GADA and gives a statement and then goes to the hospital? The actual injured went straight to the hospital. Matzounis who was shot went to the hospital. The people who were injured at the ministry of Economy went straight to the hospital and no one said anything against the organization, everyone blamed the police who did not close off the area. The truth was told by cop Ananias, who was closer to the explosion than anyone.
Grigorios Balakos, commander of the antiterrorist force from 2006 to 2008, refused to reveal who they were watching back then and how they were watching them. Indirectly however, he confirmed that Maziotis was under surveillance (whoever had a record, he said, was watched) and he insisted that there was no evidence for anyone, so that they can make arrests. Despite the answers of the advocates, he refused to give any more information. The only thing he repeated was that there was no evidence for anyone to be arrested.
We weren’t expecting that Balakos would say the whole truth, commented N.Maziotis. We were sure that he would claim that it is classified information. This is why we insisted to definitely summon Markogiannakis, who had spoken in the Media. He deposited in the court the taped interview Markogiannakis gave to Lyritzi and Economou, in which he said that Maziotis was systematically watched and described as well a staged arrest of his in Thebes, which took place in order for them to get his mobile phone and check it. He also reminded an interview of the former commander of KYP (intelligence agency) Korandis, who had said that Maziotis was watched by two forces (antiterrorist force and KYP) and that after that attack on the American embassy Polydoras gave an order that he is to be watched only by the antiterrorist.
The commander of TEEM (bomb disposal team) D.Papadakis, who was also summoned because of the pressure of the accused, confirmed that they intervene only if there is no explosion. Which means they wait for the warning time to pass, If there is no explosion they wait for more time they estimate safe (at least an hour) and then they intervene and neutralize the mechanism with a controlled explosion. He referred also to the actions which were not completed, at Shell and the headquarters of Citibank, clarifying that the time given as a warning was plenty and that they intervened when the mechanisms did not explode, after waiting for the additional time
. In all actions aiming at material damages there were warning phone calls, clarified N.Maziotis. At the Citibank headquarters there was a phone call to ‘Nea’ newspaper, which the security guard received. The organization gave one hour and warned to evacuate the nearby buildings. The newspaper kept this secret. Because there was propaganda for a blind attack and the ‘Nea’ denied there was a phone call, the organization made a second announcement, in which it mentioned even the pay phone from where the phone call was made (corner of Makedonias and Thermopilon street) and the exact time the phone call was made. There is no way there wouldn’t be a phone call.
Infamous Dionysia Kokkini was head of security of the Stock exchange and was also summoned by the proposal of the accused. We say infamous, because the two security guards testified that she was the one they communicated with and who told them to get the cleaning lady out and told them to stay inside the building. So, this lady said that she wasn’t the manager at the time, she became later! Despite this, she confirmed that the security guards called her. How did they know her number? Why did they call her and not another supervisor? The questions remained unanswered since the witness came prepared (her supervisor had preceded her). She even tried to make the security guards look crazy, by saying that she told them to leave! And why didn’t they leave? Did they stay inside to risk their lives? This question also remained unanswered.
Examining her, P.Roupa heavily criticized her amoralism and this lady did not dare to complain. And N.Maziotis, after reminding that Kokkini also came because ‘we summoned her’, she reminded what the security guards testified and what was testified by the supervisors which put these people in danger, because they consider them expendable. In this court, concluded N.Maziotis, the only ones responsible, the only ones who tell the truth, are us, the members of R.S. Only because of our responsibility these people were not endangered. Others put their lives in danger and not the R.S. Those who are more interested in the function of the stock exchange, the function of capitalism, and not in human lives.
The third security guard, Ch. Ligos, appeared visibly shaken and frightened. He tried to cover the responsibilities of their superiors, saying that they did not tell them to stay, but to take the keys and some books and go. Simply, he said, when they tried to leave the explosion took place. He even said that he was at the exit when the explosion happened. From his preliminary testimony, however, as well as his colleagues, it results that the explosion happened when they were still in the control room, where they were told to stay. It was clear this man was told not to repeat what his two colleagues said.
His contradictions were raised by a comment by N.Maziotis, while P.Roupa noted that, even if we accept that he is telling the truth, that they had to do a few things and go, what is proven is that the time it took for them to do the few things was not enough. They told them to do things that took longer than 40 minutes, completely disregarding their lives.
El. Zitiridou was called to testify that she lost her motorbike which was used in an action of the RS, without her knowing anything. F.Efstathiou was the principal of an elementary school near Voulgarakis house. She herself was not present when the explosion took places, the kids had not started going to school yet and that only a few windows were smashed.
D.Dimitrakopoulou lives across Neas Ionias police station and heard the shots and the explosion of the grenade. K.Kalogrias was a postman in the area of the American embassy and had testified about a suspicious couple. And what did he say today? That the ‘suspicious’ couple was probably models from the agency which is in the area, that they were taking photos with the embassy in the background, or Lykavittos, just as many tourists do, while he was worried they might ambush him because he was carrying money in his service bag. Advocate D.Vagianou, reminded that the initial testimonies which many witnesses give in such cases change the facts, because a climate of demonization is created. When this climate grows thin, it is natural that logic returns.
An.Karakouni, resident of the area, initially testified that she saw a person on a motorbike looking around. Maybe it was accidental, she testified now. Do you not have anything to ask the witness? N.Maziotis asked the prosecutor with obvious irony. And he, laughing embarrassingly, asked the witness if she recognizes any of the accused, for which he got a negative answer accompanied by a comment that anyway she could not remember a person she saw only once.
An.Abarian and Th.Kaparelos were the crew of the cop car which first got to the ministry of Labor, after they were warned of a bomb. They confirmed that they found the bomb next to a garbage bin, over 15 metres away from the ministry, that more cop cars arrived, they closed off the area and when the explosion took place no one was in danger. The testimony of the homeless person who found the bomb was shocking (his preliminary testimony was read since he was not found). While he was looking for some clothes and some corner to sleep on, he found the bomb in new ruck sack, called the guard of the ministry and he told him ‘don’t be afraid, put it there next to the bin and I will call it in’!
Is the police responsible to tell a citizen to take the sack and put next to the bin? wondered rhetorically N.Maziotis. For the person who carried the bomb for so many metres, but also for the damages, the cop is to blame, because the bomb was placed in the gap in order to cause damage only to the ministry, he intensely noted. He reminded, as well, that these witnesses were summoned by the accused and not the court. Cop A.Partsakoulakis was summoned just so at least one person from the attack on Citibank in Kifissia was summoned. He testified the usual: that they were warned for an explosion, they went, closed off the area and there were only material damages.
Finally, M.Gogou, a cleaning lady in the Sarakakis building, who was slightly scratched from the explosion in the stock exchange (he testimony was read, since she was not found in order to be summoned), confirmed that the police did not evacuate the buildings, as the RS had pointed out its phone call. The prosecutor asked for this witness to come as diversion, commented N.Maziotis. To prove that ‘you put the bomb; it’s all your fault’. However the witness’s testimony confirms that the police did not do what they were supposed to, commented D.Vagianou. The witness was only on the mezzanine, on the side of Athinas avenue, where the cops were. If the area was closed off sufficiently, the witness should have left. But she didn’t even realize that something was going to happen!
At the end of the procedure, the prosecutor proposed that the court does not insist on the summoning of prosecution witnesses who did not appear, because they do not have anything to say. For the new witnesses, the summoning of which was decided by the court, he proposed to find Horianopoulos (ex-head of the anti-terrorist force), since he is a retired public servant and therefore with knowledge of management, and Markogiannakis, for which he expressed the complaint that he did not even send a note to inform the court of his absence.
The court decided to summon Markogiannakis, Horianopoulos and Karagoulias and to re announce the rest of the witnesses and to interrupt the court until Friday May 18th , at 9am.
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