Police detonate mail bomb sent to high-security Greek prison

Mar 31, 2011, 15:17 GMT

Athens - Greek police carried out a controlled explosion of a mail bomb from Italy that was sent to a maximum security prison in Athens, reports said Thursday.

Police said the parcel was sent to the director of the top security Korydallos prison in western Athens. Prison officials immediately called in bomb experts after the package was scanned.

Officials said the package has Italian postage stamps but no postmark. The package said the sender was EUROFOR Florence but police suspect that the Italian Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI) might be behind the attack.

The group admitted to be behind the parcel bomb attacks against embassies in Rome in December which injured two people.

A group of Greek militant left-wing anarchists has claimed responsibility for a number of parcel bombs sent in November to embassies, government buildings and the homes of Greek politicians.

The trial of nine people allegedly involved in such attacks is still underway in a court room in Korydallos prison. The defendants, all in their early 20s, are members of the Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei.

They face a maximum of 25 years in prison if found guilty.

Separately, Greek police recently arrested several suspect extremists of the far-left organization Revolutionary Struggle.

Revolutionary Struggle has been active since 2003 and has carried out more than a dozen attacks, including a rocket strike against the US embassy in Athens three years ago and a bomb attack on the Athens Stock Exchange last year.

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