ATHENS, Greece — A Greek fugitive who vanished on furlough from prison while serving six life sentences for being in a deadly terrorist organization has vowed a return to armed action.

Christodoulos Xiros railed against the handling of Greece’s financial crisis and threatened the media, the judiciary and the Greek government in an Internet post on Monday.

“I once again decided to make the guerrilla rifle thunder against those who stole our lives and sold our dreams to make a profit,” Xiros said.

The posting included a video of him reading a seven-page statement, the text itself and a photo of him in front of pictures of 19th-century Greek resistance fighters and Latin American rebel Che Guevara.

His lawyer, Frangiskos Ragoussis, confirmed that the posting was genuine.

Xiros, 55, was convicted in 2003 along with two of his brothers of belonging to the November 17 organization. The group, which emerged in the mid-1970s, claimed responsibility for a series of deadly bombings and shootings against foreign diplomats and Greek politicians and businessmen over nearly three decades.

Advertisement

Xiros vanished Jan. 7 while on a seven-day leave from prison to visit his family.

In his statement Monday, Xiros also slammed the extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party and invited Greece’s security forces to join with him.

He reserved particular bile for the two parties in Greece’s governing coalition, the conservative New Democracy and the socialist Pasok, accusing them of treason and stating that the “price of their treason is death.”

Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras responded late Monday: “We will not be stopped by the various types of extremists or by the threats made by terrorists.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.