New details have emerged about how the man and woman were arrested by officers of the Anti-Terrorist Unit, Greece’s specialist police division for terrorism-related crime, operated as the alleged perpetrators of the arson attack that led to the death of Vagia Nestora and left four more people injured.

According to information obtained by protothema.gr, the “operational” pair went, one day before the attack, to the house of a man (the third person arrested) located near the apartment block where the Nestora family lives, and hid there. Searches have been under way since Friday morning at the house, situated on Papadiamantis Street.

The attack and a second team

The pair changed clothes, made their final preparations, and the following day, at around 4:00am, carried out the attack. At the same time, a second team was carrying out attacks on the homes of two other New Democracy (ND), Greece’s governing centre-right party, officials: Zisis Ioakeimovits and Savvas Anastasiadis.

After the attack on the Nestora family’s home, the man and woman returned to the third arrestee’s house and remained there until the following evening. The woman then decided to travel to Chania, on the island of Crete, while the man continued hiding at the property.

Months of planning, then CCTV footage broke the case

Police sources told protothema.gr that the two alleged perpetrators had planned their movements in detail, having visited the site and carried out surveillance on previous occasions. A decisive factor in tracking and arresting them was an investigation carried out by Anti-Terrorist Unit officers into a pool of around 30 individuals connected to the anti-establishment scene, combined with the analysis of footage from CCTV cameras in the area.

Officers narrowed down the most likely suspects and, cross-referencing this with video footage from the day of the attack, were able to identify those responsible. Evidence gathered so far indicates that two teams were active on the day of the attacks.

The first consisted of the man and woman who were arrested, while the second comprised members of the same organisation who carried out the remaining attacks. Members of the second team have not yet been identified, and the investigation remains ongoing.

Suspects known within anarchist circles

The woman arrested in Chania comes from the anarchist scene and is reported to have been actively involved in it. She is originally from Athens but had been living in Thessaloniki, and is understood to have travelled to Chania to hide at the home of friends. She was previously imprisoned in 2022 as a member of the “Anarchist Action” organisation.

The second person arrested is a man born in 1997 who, according to the same sources, is a member of the Anarchist Council of Thessaloniki. He was previously detained by authorities in 2015, with a further detention recorded in 2026.

The third person arrested is, as noted above, the owner of the house in which the two suspects took refuge both before and after the attack.