The last hit of Nikos Maziotis before his arrest in the center of Athens, in front of passers-by and tourists was last April during a robbery he committed in Kleitoria Achaia where CCTV footage showed the disguised Nikos Maziotis in a Piraeus Bank branch.

But the hit against the Department for the Supervision of the Bank of Greece in Amerikis Street, which houses the permanent IMF representative in Greece, was attributed to Maziotis and his team. The attack was a car bomb and caused damage in the samer area. This followed the morning of January 14th, 2013, an attack with AK-47s against New Democracy ruling party’s offices on Syggrou Blvd., after a failed attempt of an RPG attack. Two witnesses in Faliro, where the escape car of the terrorists was burned to eliminate evidence speak of three people: two men and one woman, the latter of whom was sitting on the driver’s seat. Although the responsibility for the attack was undertaken by the “People’s Fighters Group” the anti-terrorism unit identified Nikos Maziotis and the organization “Revolutionary Struggle”.

Son of a tax man
The actions of anti-authoritarian Nikos Maziotis, who started off as the son of a Tax official and became one of the biggest national terrorists, started off in the early 1990s.

On May 15th of 1991 he was arrested when he refused to serve his mandatory Army service. He was sentenced to one year imprisonment with three years parole in September of the same year. He was called for a second time in the army, but he did not respond.

He was arrested in October 1992 for insubordination, once more. In December of that year, shortly before the trial, he went on a hunger strike for 57 whole days while he was detained in the “Pavlos Melas” military prison in Thessaloniki.

After major protests of social organizations, in January 1993, he was set free.
Four years later, Nikos Maziotis was in the crosshairs of Police once more. It was November 1995 when, along with 500 anarchists he was taken to Police HQ after an illegal occupation of the Polytechnic University. He was sentenced to 12 months, suspended.
In 1996, on the anniversary of the Polytechnic University (remembrance of Junta’s attack on the University before its fall in 1974), Nikos Maziotis is among the arrested people occupying the University.

On the 13th of January, 1998, police arrests Maziotis again. 16 more arrests are made on the 12th floor of Police HQ, of whom eight are women. The reason for his arrest was an imprint found on a duct tape of a bomb spotted outside the Ministry of Industry on Michalakopoulou Street, on 5.12.1997. The responsibility for the bomb was assumed by the organization named as “The Fighting Guerilla Formation”, which had also assumed responsibility for the bombings of University buildings (13.11.1996), the Embassy of Peru (30.12.1996), Mary Bosi’s house (she was a former adviser to Minister Stelios Papathemelis (2.23.1997), Alitalia airline (3.4.1997) and the offices of car company Lancia (16.4.1997). Before his arrest, the anti-terrorist unit had been watching him for more than one month, to distinguish possible connections, and detained him in a house in Peristeri.

Findings in the House

The house was rented and stored a large quantity of explosives and weapons, such as 9,470 grams of explosives, 1 9mm Zastava handgun, 1 .38mm Smith and Wesson revolver, 4 woolen hoods, 2 magazines, 148 bullets, two wire coils, 1 military canteen, adhesive stickers that wrote “Shops burn wonderfully”, etc.

After the charges brought against him for an “attempted explosion”, “supply, possession and manufacture of explosives and bombs” and “aggravated possession of weapons and explosives”, Nikos Maziotis wrote a letter to “Eleftherotypia” newspaper, and after he completed his 18 months of temporary detention he “assumed full political responsibility for his actions in solidarity with the struggle of the residents of Strymonikos gulf against the ecological disaster that occurred from the investments of multinational company “TVX Gold”, stating that “The Anarchist City Guerillas are me. I was the only one who prepared the bomb and placed in the Ministry of Industry and Development. Anything found in the house in Peristeri is mine and mine alone. I do not consider myself an armed rebel, but a social rebel”. At the same time, he rejected having had the slightest intent to cause a loss of innocent human life. Maziotis is first sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentece was reduced and he was released from jail after 3.5 years, in August 2001.

In January 2004, he formally filed a complaint against the anti-terrorism unit for causing an accident due to a motorcycle which had been tailing him, “with a possibility for my fatal injury”, referring to a “limitless vengeance of Police against those rebels which prisons cannot break”.

Three years later, he made another formal complaint against the Counter-Terrorism Unit for indiscriminate monitoring and leaks to the press, trying to make him a suspect. The same year, he was arrested and taken to Police HQ as a suspect for a robbery in Ilion, however, a few hours later, he was released.

Four months later, Nikos Maziotis files a complaint against his violent arrest from his home in Ano Liosia, since Police did not make the reason for his arrest, known.  He also claimed that a police officer hit him while he was wearing handcuffs “just for being an anarchist”.

Five robberies in eighteen months

From March 2012, until August 2013, along with five to six people, among them, a woman, Nikos Maziotis seems to have been part of five armed robberies: Nemea, Akrata, Spetses, Velestino and Methana. The payday for all of these was over 1.5 million euros.  Nikos Maziotis was suspected as being the one in the plaid shirt in front of the cashiers, where he avoided robbing one of the customers, and before leaving, he neared one of the customers sitting in a chair and told him: “Tell everyone the Velestino’s robbers were gentlemen, they did not touch our money, and they only rob from the state”.

The “Revolutionary Struggle”

The organization Revolutionary Struggle was “born” in September 2003, one year after the dismantling of the terrorist organization known as “November 17”, when it made its first attack with a double bomb hit against the Courts. Lambros Foundas, Nikos Maziotis and Paula Roupa are its best known members.
It is the organization responsible for the bomb attack against former Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis onn Lycabettus and an RPG attack against the U.S Embassy in Athens. The rocket barely missed the American escutcheon.

With the same way, the Revolutionary Struggle organization had struck twice more: On February 2009 when a car strapped with ANFO explosives was placed inf ront of Citibank’s central offices in Kifisia and September 2, 2009, when, using the same Modus Operandi, they caused a severe explosion outside the Athens Stock Exchange.  One of the founding members of the Revolutionary Struggle was Lambros Foundas who was shot dead on March 10, 2010, in Dafne, Athens, after a shooting with Police. The 35 year-old Biologist and two more men had tried to steal a car.

His death “caused” the arrests of more members of the organization, including Nikos Maziotis and his partner Panayiota Roupa. The two of them, along with Vangelis Stathopoulos, Christophoros Kortesis, Sarantis Nikitopoulos and Konstantinos Gournaw were arrested on April 9, 2010, as suspects of being part of the terrorist organization.

Maziotis and Roupa took advantage of the judicial inertia and were released after 18 months of pre-trial detention.

The defendants, however, were to appear at regular intervals in the Exarcheia Police Department. However, on June 20, 2012, noone appeared, but noone looked for them. Since then and until today, Nikos Maziotis has remained wanted, and in accordance with Police, was involved in bank robberies.

“Revolutionary Struggle’s” List of attacks

– September 5, 2003: Twin bombs hit the courts of the former Academy. One police officer was slightly injured
– March 14, 2004: Timed bomb placed in a branch of Citibank in N. Psihiko
– May 5, 2004: Triple Assault on the Kallithea  Police Precinct.
– October 29, 2004: Failed attempt to “hit” two trucks and a small van belonging to riot police with a wired bomb
– June 2, 2005: A high-yield bomb placed in the Ministry of Employment in Piraeus Street.
– December 12, 2005: A booby-trapped motorcycle outside the Finance Ministry in Syntagma. Three people were slightly injured by glass windows shattering.
– May 30, 2006: Detonation of an explosive device, in the neighborhood of G. Voulgaraki, on Lycabettus Hill
– January 12, 2007: Rocket-propelled attack against the U.S. embassy in Athens
– April 30, 2007: Members of the organization shot up the Police Precinct of Perissos.
– October 24, 2008: An explosive device was placed outside the building of «Shell» in P. Faliro.
– December 23, 2008: Shots fired against Police Forces in Goudi.
– January 5, 2009: Attack against riot police outside the Culture Ministry. Seriously injured was 21 year old constable Diamandis Mantzounis.
– February 18, 2009: Attempted  ANFO  explosive  car bomb at Citibank headquarters in Kifissia.
– March 9, 2009: Explosion at the Citibank branch in N. Ionia.
– 12 May 2009: Attack on the branch of Eurobank in Argiroupolis
– September 2, 2009: ANFO explosive car bomb outside the Athens Stock Exchange.
– April 10, 2014: ANFO explosive car bomb used for  a powerful explosion outside the building of the Bank of Greece on Amerikis street. The same building houses the office of the representative of the IMF in Greece.