U.S. designates jailed Greek guerrilla members as terrorists
By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Tuesday designated jailed Greek guerilla group members Christodoulos Xiros and Nikolaos Maziotis as terrorists, a day after protesting a new prison law approved by Greece's parliament. "All property subject to U.S. jurisdiction in which Xiros and Maziotis have any interest is blocked and any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction are frozen," the State Department said in a statement. The United States on Monday expressed concern over the law that paves the way for Xiros' brother, Savvas, serving multiple life terms for his role in the Marxist guerrilla group November 17, to be released from jail. The law, backed by Greece's new government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, allows severely disabled inmates including Savvas, injured in a 2002 failed bomb attack and also suffering from multiple sclerosis, to be placed under house arrest. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry raised U.S. worries in a meeting with his Greek counterpart on Monday. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the designation process had taken months and was not directly tied to the new law. "We believe that when these two individuals were outside of custody - they are both back in custody now - they resumed terrorist activity," Harf said. "This really highlights our concern about new Greek legislation." Christodoulos Xiros and Maziotis are not eligible to be released under the law but Harf added: "We will be watching carefully the implementation of Greece's new law." Christodoulos Xiros, 56, also a member of the now-defunct November 17, is serving multiple life terms for his role in attacks that killed Greek, U.S. and British diplomats. He escaped from prison in January 2014, prompting U.S. calls for Greece to use all means to apprehend him. Maziotis, 42, was charged in 2010 over a series of attacks claimed by the Revolutionary Struggle group, including firing a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. embassy in Athens in 2007 and a 2009 car bomb that damaged the Athens stock exchange. He had been on the run since 2012 and was arrested in July 2014. Revolutionary Struggle was set up in 2003 and declared war on all forms of government. It later said it was protesting against austerity measures imposed during Greece's financial crisis. The group was considered dismantled in 2010, but in April 2014 it claimed a car bombing at a central bank building. (Additional reporting by Karolina Tagaris in Athens; Editing by Susan Heavey, Will Dunham and Ted Botha)
