Its been almost one year since various people from different political backgrounds were arrested on suspicion of being members of the so-called 17 November 'terrorist' group. This group like its European counterparts apparently grew out of the student movement against the fall of the junta, but most people believe was just a CIA front created to discredit the opposition to US backed military rule.

For almost 27years not a single person was ever captured or arrested and then suddenly just as the Greek governemnt of PASOK was about to vote the new 'Anti-Terrorist Acts' various people were arrested, including a relative of one Trotskys co-workers (Secretary Giotopoulos) in the ILO in the 1930's.

For more than two months government propaganda rallied against the left and its terrorist leanings. The Greek Communist party as usual kept stubbornly quiet even when constitutional rights were being overturned, like the right to a jury, the right to counsel, the right to decent prison conditions etc. Instead those arrested on bogus charges were placed in isolation cells in specially constructed units in parts of an older prison. Their trial by media dictated they were condemned as terrorists prior to any proof other than fingerprints and hidden caches of weapons found as always by the police and its anti-terrorist branch.

The main accused a man named Xiros on whom all the allegations are based and on whom all other were arrested and convicted has recently stated that all his statements under police custody occurred under duress and that they should be retracted as unreliable. He speaks about threats with loaded weapons, threats of deportation to the USA, forced drugs and other such types of police torture.
The problem now is that the 'court' is in a quandary. For the accused to be imprisoned this would have to based on Xiros retracted confession. So far only one of the accused has fully accepted the charges, a man named Koufontinas whom many assert worked for the Greek security services.

Whatever the outcome of the trial, which is held behind closed doors the attempt at destroying basic civil rights has consistently met resistance by organised marches to the prison without the support of a single political party. Many people already believe this is a court case made in the USA with the aim at firghtening the population into not attacking American foreign policy.