Nov. 17 Terror Suspect Talks

The latest suspect arrested in a crackdown against the elusive November 17 terror group has confessed to stealing rockets and bazookas for the organization and participating in a bombing, police said Monday.

Thomas Serifis, a German-born Greek bus driver, was arraigned a day after he was captured Sunday in northern Greece, the 10th person to be arrested in the sweep against the organization that had bombed, assassinated and robbed with impunity for 27 years.

Serifis, 36, admitted to participating in the theft of dozens of anti-tank rockets from an army base in central Greece in 1989 and of bazookas from Athens' War Museum the following year.

He also confessed to participating in the 1989 bombing of an abandoned house, which caused no injuries, and a 1990 bank robbery that netted more than $137,000. At the time, November 17 said it had carried out the bomb attack to protest the lack of affordable housing in Athens.

Under heavy security, Serifis appeared before a prosecutor and was charged with felony counts of forming a criminal organization, supply and possession of explosives, aggravated theft and causing an explosion, and with a misdemeanor count of weapons possession. If convicted on all counts, he faces a minimum prison sentence of 20 years.

Another eight suspected November 17 members - including alleged leader Alexandros Giotopoulos, 58 - have already been charged with crimes ranging from murder to armed robbery and planting explosives. Four have confessed to participating in assassinations, while Giotopoulos has denied any involvement in the group.

Police have still not accounted for nine of the group's 23 killings, and are still scouring the country for more suspects, including 44-year-old beekeeper Dimitris Koufodinas, believed to be a crucial link between Giotopoulos and the other men arrested so far. Authorities are also looking for at least one woman suspected of participating in at least one assassination.

Authorities scored their first success against the group when they captured a suspect following a botched June 29 bomb attack. The capture triggered a series of arrests and raids on two November 17 weapons caches.

That man - 40-year-old Savas Xiros - remains hospitalized under heavy guard and has not been officially arrested or charged, although he is believed to be a leading member of the group's hit men. Two of his brothers are in custody and have confessed to a series of murders, bomb attacks and robberies.

November 17 first appeared with the 1975 assassination of CIA station chief Richard Welch and its victims include four American officials, two Turkish diplomats and leading Greek businessmen and politicians. Their last victim was British military attache Brig. Stephen Saunders, shot dead in Athens two years ago.

But Premier Costas Simitis - whose government had come under increasing pressure to crack down on domestic terrorism as Athens geared up to host the 2004 Olympic Games - repeated that it will take time before authorities are able to completely eradicate terrorism in Greece.

"I want to emphasize that the eradication of terrorism still has work and it requires time," Simitis said. "Cracking terrorism isn't a thriller played out on a Saturday night for the pleasure of the viewers. It is an effort that ... requires much evidence and that's why accountability and patience are needed. We will reach a result which will lead to the final end of this chapter in Greece.

The Eleftherotypia newspaper reported Sunday that the arrests foiled a plot by November 17 to attack NATO peacekeepers based in Kosovo as they traveled through Greece.

The newspaper said evidence had been found at November 17 hide-outs suggesting the urban guerrillas were gathering information on NATO convoys leaving the northern Greek port of Thessaloniki.

The youngest suspect detained so far, 26-year-old Dionissis

Georgiadis, had served in the army's special forces. But military authorities refused to comment on newspaper reports that he had served with NATO peacekeepers in the Balkans.

Greece and the United States both have offered rewards totaling $9 million for information leading to the arrest of November 17 members, believed to number a few dozen. Authorities have not said whether any reward money has been given out.

While the suspects wait for a trial date to be set, they will be imprisoned in small individual cells monitored 24 hours a day by closed-circuit television. The rooms have only a concrete slab for a bed, a table and chair.

In a twist of fate, the suspects are to share Athens' infamous Korydallos prison with the junta's feared military intelligence chief Dimitris Ioannidis, the only one of the generals who ruled Greece from 1967-74 still imprisoned.

Ioannidis, who was also responsible for attempting to unite Cyprus with mainland Greece which led to a Turkish invasion and the division of the island, has been in the jail since he and 10 others were found guilty of high treason in 1975.

There has been speculation that because of security concerns the trials could also be held inside Korydallos, where human rights groups say there are more than 2,000 inmates in a jail meant to hold just 600.

Its most famous inmates were the generals who ruled Greece for seven years, including dictator George Papadopoulos, who died there in 1999.

Ioannidis, who was in charge of tracking down student radicals and other junta opponents with his feared military police, overthrew Papadopoulos in 1973