Police in Athens arrested at least 60 far-left protesters after they stormed the Greek Health Ministry offices in support of an imprisoned far-left terrorist.
After invading the government building on Tuesday, the activists unfurled banners and threw flyers around the offices in support of convicted far-left terrorist Dimitris Koufodinas.
Police arrived and arrested the far-leftists, taking them to Greek Police’s headquarters (GADA) in central Athens, according to a report from the newspaper I Kathimerini.
This is the latest demonstration that far-left extremists have made in support of Koufodinas in recent weeks. The far-left terrorist, known as a hitman for the Revolutionary Organization 17 November (17N) terrorist group from 1975 to 2000, has been on hunger strike since January after demanding to be moved out of a maximum-security prison.
Anarchists were believed to be behind the firebombing of the office of the conservative New Democracy party in the Athens suburb of Nea Filadelfei earlier this month.
Greek Minister of Development and Investment Adonis Georgiadis posted pictures of the damage to the office on Twitter and condemned the attack, saying: “The miserable thugs of the Far Left burned the offices of our [local branch] with Molotov cocktails in Nea Filadelfeia.”
A Greek television programme later published a claim of responsibility for the attack from anarchists, who stated the bombing was in response to Koufodinas’s hunger strike.
Just days later, a group of anarchist extremists stormed the offices of the state-run Athens-Macedonian News Agency in support of the terrorist, evading arrest by leaving the scene before officers arrived.
Also this month, a small bomb was left at a building in Athens that houses several newspapers, resulting in minor damage to the entrance of the building.
While the building has been the target of far-left extremists in the past, it is currently unknown who planted this device.