Widow demands tough jail terms at Greek trial for November 17

The widow of the British defence attaché Stephen Saunders, the last victim of Greece's elusive November 17 terror group, demanded long prison terms for her husband's alleged killers yesterday when she gave evidence at their trial.

Heather Saunders' impassioned plea set the tone on a tense day that saw the prosecution begin summing up against the two men accused of murdering him in June 2000. "I don't want these people put up against a wall and shot," she said. "I think they should be given stiff prison sentences and denied their freedom."

Brigadier Saunders, the 23rd victim of the urban guerrilla group since 1975, was ambushed in rush-hour traffic on his way to work at the British embassy in an unmarked car. The unarmed defence attaché was shot several times with an automatic rifle and a handgun, and died in hospital.

"My husband was a perfectly innocent man but he was denied, two years from retirement, of walking his two daughters down the aisle one day," Mrs Saunders told the court in Athens. Her daughters, aged 17 and 18, sat quietly in the court's back rows as their mother gave evidence that included describing the defendants as "madmen".

In a proclamation sent to a newspaper after the killing by the Marxist-nationalist cell, it claimed Brigadier Saunders was a target because of Britain's role in the Nato bombing of Serbia in 1999. It also claimed that he was in the RAF.

"That is total lies. The men got out and killed my husband and didn't have the decency to know his real rank. He was not high enough in rank to be involved in Kosovo," Mrs Saunders said.

An amateur beekeeper, Dimitris Koufodinas, and a religious icon painter, Savvas Xiros, both 44, are accused of the murder. Mr Xiros initially confessed to the killing but withdrew his statement before the trial, now in its third month.

Mrs Saunders, dressed in a sleeveless black dress, walked past the dock where the two men sat impassively and refused to look at them. "I had said that I would like to face them and ask them why they killed him. But now I don't think they are even worth looking at," she said, before breaking into tears for the first time.

The suspectsare also charged with other killings and face consecutive sentences that would keep them in jail for life.

"I grew up in Northern Ireland and I know what terrorism means," Mrs Saunders said. "I became a nurse and treated the victims of terrorism. There is no excuse for this phenomenon. I can't understand how people who themselves have families can do such things."

Mr Koufodinas' wife, Angeliki Sotiropoulou, who is charged as an accomplice to the murder, threatened to assault a witness who placed her near the scene of the ambush. When asked to approach the witness stand to be identified, Ms Sotiropoulou replied that if she moved any closer she would attack the witness, whom she branded a liar.

The defendants have denied individual charges while taking "political responsibility" for the group's overall actions. The defence has attempted to portray the suspects as revolutionaries, claiming the crimes should be treated as political and not criminal.

November 17's victims since 1975 have included British, American and Turkish diplomats as well as Greek industrialists and politicians. The group was named after the date of a student-led uprising in 1973 that helped to topple the 1967-74 military dictatorship. A bungled bombing attempt last summer led to the arrest of Mr Xiros.