The Prosecutor of the Chamber of the Three-Member Criminal Court of Appeal Alexandra Pishchina requested the guilt of two of the defendants in the case of the explosion in an apartment on Arkadia Street in Ampelokipi in October 2024 and the acquittal of the other three, due to “serious doubts”, including Nikos Romanos.
In her guilty plea, the prosecutor accepted that the case of the powerful explosion that killed Kyriakos Xymitiris and injured his partner, defendant Mariana Manoura, involved “a terrorist organization that was preparing to target an unknown government structure.” Pishchina referred at length to the partial fingerprint evidence that brought Nikos Romanos and another defendant to justice. In the fingerprint report, the prosecutor said, it was stated that “inside a torn and dirty “Sanitas” garbage bag a wrapped gun was found” and on it was found “a partial external fingerprint of Nikos Romanos and an internal one of the fifth defendant A.K.”. He stressed that “it was found that in addition to the defendants’ fingerprints there were other unidentified ones. This fact indicates that the first bag is not disposable and was used many times.”
As the prosecutor noted, “I can’t imagine that it took five people to put the guns in a bag… Is it possible that he took steps to keep the gun clean but didn’t do the same for the bag? Keep in mind that the ideological field of space has multiple purposes and a bag can be used for peaceful or even warlike purposes by not the same person. From the explosion to the arrest no habit of theirs changed neither panic nor desire to hide. Whatever evidence was not brought out in your court as full proof. In this particular case very serious doubts are raised, therefore I ask for their acquittal. Similarly, I seek the acquittal of the third accused from all charges for the same reasons, since he is merely accompanying the relationship on an appointment.”
According to the prosecutor, the first two defendants, M. Manoura and Demetra Z. who provided the keys to the apartment on Arcadia Street, “committed the following acts on a case-by-case basis: formation and membership of a terrorist organisation, aggravated manufacture of explosive devices, possession of explosives, explosive devices, pistols and ammunition, supply and possession of explosives”.
Mrs. Pishchina referred to the relationship that Kyriakos Xymitiris and the first two defendants developed in Berlin in 2018, a relationship that continued upon their return to Greece. “Three close friends who participate in the anarchist movement which accepts armed struggle, that is, the use of weapons against abusive state violence, who do not aim to overthrow the constitution,” she stressed, giving her own response to the position on political crime that was expressed from the outset by the first accused. According to the prosecutor’s position, because of the special relationship of intimacy, sincerity, companionship and solidarity they had between them, there was no reason to conceal from Demeter Z. that Xymitiris was in the armed struggle. “I find it inconceivable that lies have been entrenched between them,” he said.
As for the Arcadia Street apartment, Ms. Pishchina described it as “an ideal hideout… in the popular district of Ampelokipoi on the outskirts of the municipality of Athens in a hub between major arteries with proximity to government structures, large hotels… And the first to know it was Dimitra Z. who in the past has visited the property”. In fact, he said that Demetra Z. is “the central figure as everything is coordinated around her schedule of obligations so that when the business is completed, she is far away.”
According to the prosecutor, the case involves a “multi-faceted group of three or five people, since presumably there are at least two more people, as evidenced by the two orphaned telephone lines found in Xymitiri’s possession.”
