11 ‘Turkish far-left extremists’ arrested in Greece

ATHENS: Greek police on Friday said 11 people had been arrested as suspected members of a Turkish far-left extremist group after a raid on hideouts found heavy weaponry in a tunnel.

A police statement said the "foreign" suspects will be arraigned as members of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), a far-left group active in Turkey. The arrests took place after raids on Thursday at a house and a flat in the Athens districts of Sepolia and Exarchia.

At the Sepolia residence, police found two anti-tank launchers, a Kalashnikov rifle, handguns, clips and bullets hidden in a 47-metre (154-foot) tunnel. Surveillance cameras had been installed outside the house.

In the Exarchia flat, police seized mobile phones, laptops, a scanner and other computer hardware. A twelfth person arrested was sought under an Interpol warrant for alleged links to DHKP-C, the police said.

The DHKP-C has carried out sporadic attacks over the years and is listed as an extremist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States. Nine people were arrested in Greece in 2017 ahead of a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They were initially charged as DHKP-C members and jailed for months before being released last year after convincing a court that they were political refugees.