Two trials are currently underway. One involves Revolutionary Struggle (with eight defendants: admitted Revolutionary Struggle members Costas Gournas, Nikos Maziotis, and Pola Roupa, as well as Christoforos Kortesis, Sarantos Nikitopoulos, Vangelis Stathopoulos, Maria Beraha, and Costas Katsenos, who deny the charges). Right now, Katsenos is the only defendant in prison. The other trial is the second to deal with the Halandri Case (with four defendants: admitted Fire Cells Conspiracy members Damiano Bolano, Giorgos Nikolopoulos, Michalis Nikolopoulos, and Christos Tsakalos).
The trial of the four comrades from Thessaloniki who are charged with several arsons carried out between 2006 and 2007 was scheduled to begin on February 17, but it has been postponed until January 10, 2013. This particular trial was supposed to mark the first attempt by Greek authorities to apply the antiterrorist law to anarchists. One of the defendants, Vangelis Bozatzis, already spent over a year in preventive detention. The others, Ilias Nikolau, Dimitra Syrianou, and Costas Halazas, chose the path of clandestinity before ultimately turning themselves in to the authorities in December 2008 after Bozatzis was granted a conditional release. Nikolau, Syrianou, and Halazas were also released with charges, but Nikolau was arrested again in January 2009 and charged with planting an incendiary device at a police station. Nikolau then served his sentence for that crime and was released quite a while ago. However, the new trial is expected to be a difficult one for all four defendants.
In March, just a few weeks from now, the last two (or so we hope) trials involving Simos Seisidis are scheduled to begin. One trial deals with the theft of a weapon from a guard watching the home of Supreme Court judge Kedikoglou, which took place just a few years ago. The other trial involves a robbery at an Alpha Bank in the Athens neighborhood of Nea Halkidona, which took place many years ago. The two crimes were attributed to Seisidis while he was at large, and in his absence he was sentenced to six years in prison for the Alpha Bank robbery. We will shortly publish more detailed information regarding Seisidis’ situation.
March 8 is the scheduled start date for the trial of anarchist comrade Apostolis Kyriakopoulos and three others arrested during the December 2008 uprising. Kyriakopoulos spent six months in prison before being granted a conditional release with charges for throwing a Molotov, etc.
On March 5, Konstantina Karakatsani—sentenced to 11 years in prison during the first Halandri Case trial—will submit her petition for a suspended sentence. Panayiotis Masouras, another defendant in the case, will do the same on March 19.
On March 6, comrade Stella Antoniou—also charged with membership in the Fire Cells Conspiracy—will submit her fifth petition for a release due to health reasons.
The trial of Rami Syrianos will begin on March 26. Syrianos was arrested in January 2011 after robbing a vehicle auction in Thessaloniki. Another comrade, Kleomenis Savvanidis, will join Syrianos in the dock. Savvanidis was arrested on the same day as Syrianos and charged with being his accomplice despite the lack of a single shred of evidence linking him to the action. Given his solid alibi and several defense testimonies in his favor, Savvanidis was granted a conditional release two days after his arrest, but the charges against him remain in effect.
The appeal hearing for Vangelis Chrysochoidis and Polykarpos Georgiadis is scheduled to begin on April 26. Both men were arrested in the summer of 2008 and charged with the kidnapping of industrialist Giorgos Mylonas as well as a number of robberies. They were each sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison.