Terrorism suspect released

Kostas Sakkas is a terrorism suspect who was first arrested three years ago, imprisoned for 31 months awaiting trial and released on probation after his internment period ended, following a 38 day hunger strike.

He was re-indited when his fingerprints were found in a suspected hideout of the group “Conspiracy Of The Nuclei Of Fire” in Chalandri, a northern Athens suburb. He was accused of being a member of the group, but he has denied any involvement, claiming that his fingerprints were found on a couple of bags discovered five years after the original confiscations from the alleged apartment hideout.

Nuclei of Fire member Gerasimos Tsakalos in an announcement posted on interarma.info, basically, exonerates Kostas Sakkas, and blasts the indymedia site, and anarchists.

In the announcement, Tsakalos sends comradely greetings to Christodoulos Xiros, whom he calls an “urban guerrilla,” and takes the blame for Sakkas' fingerprints found by police on the bags..

The new announcement denotes the fractious conditions in the Greek extreme left.

The second Sakkas arrest has reignited an ongoing debate concerning civil rights versus national security – a debate all too familiar with American citizens since 9/11 and particularly since the Edward Snowden revelations. What happens when the rights of the accused clash with society's concerns about terrorism?

The Sakkas case is reminiscent of the recent Christodoulos Xiros “scandal”, in which the convicted November 17 terrorist escaped from custody after receiving a furlough from Korydalos prison. Judiciary experts claim the furlough initiative is standard process for convicted criminals due to humanitarian reasons. Security experts, on the other hand, point out that a furlough for convicted terrorists is a clear risk to national security.

The Xiros escape was turned into a centerpiece of the recent talks between Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos and US Secretary of State, John Kerry in Washington. The American Secretary was puzzled, to say the least, by the fact that a dangerous murderer would even be eligible for a furlough.

The case of Kostas Sakkas is admittedly quite different. The accused was originally released because the judiciary was too slow to bring him to trial within the time constrains of the law. After his new arrest today, he was again released under the same restrictive terms as his original release plus a 5000 euro bail.