MANY TIED TO SLAIN TERRORIST NABBED BY POLICE IN GREECE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330080-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: May 22, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330080-6
ARTICLE E:P EARED
ON PA L7::~
WASHINGTON TIMES
22 May 1985
Many tied to slain terrorist
nabbed by police in Greece
By Bill Gertz
THE MMSMINOTON TIMES
Greek authorities have uncovered the core
of a terrorist cell following a shootout last
week in Athens which left an Athens police
officer and a terrorist dead.
The slain gunman has been identified as
32-year-old Christo Tsoutsouvis, a member of
a terrorist group described as a "branch" of
the leftist terror group known as November
17. He was shot when a gun battle erupted
between police and several men who had
approached a parked motorcycle under police
surveillance. The motorcycle was later dis-
covered to have been stolen.
Achilles Paparsenos, the Greek Embassy's
press attache, said yesterday in an interview
that Greek anti-terrorist police had made
`November IT claimed
responsibility for the 1983
murder of U.S. Navy Capt.
George Tsantes, gunned
down by two terrorists.
numerous arrests of suspects connected with
Tsoutsouvis, and had found leaflets in Tsou-
tsouvis' apartment from a group called Anti-
State Struggle.
Anti-State Struggle claimed responsibility
for the April 1 murder of Greek Public Pros-
ecutor George Theophanopoulos, Mr. Papar-
senos said. A copy of the communique
claiming responsibility for the assassination
was found in Tsoutousvis' apartment.
In Athens yesterday, Public Order Minister
Alexandros Floros said police are now inves-
tigating a possible link between Anti-State
Struggle and the November 17 organization,
according to the Associated Press.
Anti-State Struggle has been described as
an offshoot of November 17 - a radical group
named after the date students from a Greek
polytechnical school rioted against the Greek
military dictatorship in 1973. November 17
has claimed responsibility for a series of
assassinations and attempted assassinations,
including the 1983 murder of U.S. Navy Capt.
George Tsantes, gunned down by two terror-
ists on motorcycles.
Ballistics tests found that Richard Welch,
the CIA's station chief in Athens. was killed in
a 1975 terrorist attack by the same 45-caliber
pistol used in the Tsantes assassination,
according to a knowledgable U.S. government
source. Mr. Welch was killed shortly after a
left-wing. anti-CIA publication listed his
name in an expose of CIA personnel.
Mr. Floros denied Greek press reports that
Tsoutsouvis had connections with Premie
Andreas Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist
Movement."Tsoutsouvis had connections
with anarchist groups abroad from 1973
onwards:' r. Flons said, "He considered Mr.
Papandreou a CIA agent, according to our
investigations."
s"
The New York Times reported Sunday that
Tsoutouvis was linked to the Panhellenic
Socialist Party, having served as an observer
for the party during elections that brought the
prime minister into office.
The report said conservative political
opponents of Mr. Papandreou had called for
an investigation of links between the terrorist
and the party.
Initial Greek press reports of last week's
incident raised the possibility that a terrorist
group was involved in the police shootout, say-
ing an eyewitness reportedly saw one of the
fleeing suspects kill the wounded Tsou-
tsouvis and remove the slain man's weapon.
Mr. Paparsenos disputed the account of the
execution and said the fleeing gunman did not
shoot his comrade out told him, "I cannot help
you" He said an autopsy of the dead suspect
revealed several bullet wounds in the chest.
In an interview yesterday, Mr. Paparsenos
would not provide any specifics on the terror-
ist group but said Greek authorities are con-
tinuing the investigation of "the terrorist
organization" linked to Tsoutsouvis.
Tsoutsouvis had left Greece for Berlin in
1971 and later lived in Sweden until 1974 when
he attended engineering school in Austria, the
spokesman said.
Mr. Paparsenos said three or four people
had been arrested by police for their links to
Tsoutouvis and charged with serious crimes
involving robberies and murder.
Mr. Paparsenos confirmed that Tsoutouvis
had been in Greece "illegally" during 1981.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302330080-6