Greek police find gun used to murder defence attache

Bungled bombing by November 17 terrorist group offers vital clues to assassination of British diplomat two years ago

Greek police, assisted by Scotland Yard detectives, confirmed yesterday that they had found the gun used in the murder of Brigadier Stephen Saunders, a British defence attaché, in Athens two years ago.

The discovery, part of a spectacular series of developments in the investigation into the November 17 terrorist group, was made during a search of one of two hideouts identified after the capture of a member of the group during a bungled bombing mission.

Brigadier Saunders became the group's 23rd victim in 27 years when he was shot dead in his car by two members of the gang, which accused him of being involved in planning for the Nato bombing of Serbia during the Kosovo war.

The British Ministry of Defence has always said he played no part in the conflict.

Named after the 1973 student uprising against the military dictatorship that governed Greece at the time, November 17 operated with apparent impunity until senior detectives from Britain and the US became involved after the brigadier's death. Lefteris Economou, a police spokesman, said ballistic tests had proved that a .45 calibre pistol found alongside dozens of anti-tank rockets, assault rifles, documents and disguises, was the murder weapon. "It was used in the murder of the British military attaché Stephen Saunders on 8 June, 2000," he said. "The gun was found with its magazine and the serial numbers had been erased."

Mr Economou said the weapon had also been used on its own or with others in the murder of five other people, including the Greek parliamentarian Pavlos Bakoyiannis.

The breakthrough that led to discovery of the murder weapon came on 29 June. Savas Xiros, an icon painter aged 40, was seriously hurt when a bomb he was trying to plant exploded near the port of Piraeus in Athens. A revolver found near by had been taken from a policeman who was killed during a robbery in 1984, also blamed on November 17. This was the first opportunity for the police to question a suspect from the group.

Greek detectives, who say they have had invaluable assistance from Scotland Yard anti-terrorism officers, then followed a series of clues and publicised pictures of Mr Xiros in the Greek media. The results were spectacular: two hideouts were found filled with weapons and disguises used by the group. Another gun found was a .38 calibre revolver that had been used in three murders, an attempted murder, two bank robberies and two shoot-outs with police.

Mr Xiros, still in hospital under heavy police guard, has not been charged but he has been giving a deposition to a prosecutor for almost a week.

He has also been naming names, principally Dimitris Koufodinas, 44, who until recently had been living with Angeliki Sotiropoulou, Mr Xiros's former wife. The two hideouts are understood to have been rented separately by the men. Three other people, including two of Mr Xiros's brothers, are being quesioned.

During an interview in The Guardian this week, Brigadier Saunders' widow, Heather, said she felt "relief, disbelief and excitement" that police were on the brink of bringing her husband's killers to justice. "It's not blood that I seek in revenge," she said. "I just want these people deprived of their freedom and taken away from their family and loved ones as I, my two daughters and my mother-in-law were taken away from ours."