Constantinos Giagtzoglou

More than a year after a letter bomb sent from Greece exploded at International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Paris, injuring the employee who opened it, French counterterrorism and judicial officials were in Athens recently to discuss the progress of investigations with their Greek counterparts, Kathimerini has learned.

Greek Police are examining the remnants of a bomb which detonated on Saturday in a sentry-box near the Athens Evelpidon court complex after learning about it from an online claim of responsibility by new guerrilla group.

In comments on Monday, conservative New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis blamed the leftist-led government over the latest spate of violence carried out by self-styled anarchists and accused the authorities of negotiating with terrorist suspects.

"Violence and lawlessness has unfortunately extended beyond the center of Athens to other cities," Mitsotakis said.

A spate of lawlessness in central Athens by self-styled anarchists, including acts of vandalism and arson, is being coordinated by jailed members of the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire guerrilla group, Kathimerini understands. 

Self-styled anarchists ran amok along Patission Street on Friday, vandalizing storefronts, the latest act in a spate of lawlessness in Athens.

Shortly after 10 a.m., hooded assailants damaged the façade of a branch of Hellenic Post (ELTA) and the glass fronts of two shops, according to police.

Self-styled anarchists ran amok along Patission Street on Friday, vandalizing storefronts, the latest act in a spate of lawlessness in Athens.

Shortly after 10 a.m., hooded assailants damaged the façade of a branch of Hellenic Post (ELTA) and the glass fronts of two shops, according to police.

A post on an anarchist website claiming responsibility for a Molotov cocktail attack on police in the downtown Athens Exarchia district in the early hours of Thursday vowed an escalation in violence that would "make December 2008 like a pleasant memory."

The office of a university professor at Panteion University in Athens was vandalized by members of an anti-establishment group on Wednesday afternoon, the latest in a series of attacks described by the perpetrators as "an expression of solidarity" with Constantinos Giagtzoglou, a 29-year-old terrorist suspect who was recently transferred from the capital's Korydallos Prison to a penitentiary in

Some 30 to 40 members of anti-establishment groups were on Wednesday staging a sit-in protest at the offices of the government-affiliated Avgi newspaper.

Early reports said the protest was in solidarity with Constantinos Giagtzoglou, a 29-year-old terrorist suspect who was recently transferred from Korydallos maximum security prison to a Larissa penitentiary.

Unknown assailants smashed the facades of several shops on Ermou Street in central Athens late on Tuesday.

There was no information on who committed the vandalism or why.