THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) 鈥� Greek anti-terrorist police arrested three people Friday in connection with a against conservative party politicians that left one person dead and four injured, authorities said.
The predawn bombings in the northern city of Thessaloniki on July 1 targeted the homes of members of governing conservative New Democracy party. The 72-year-old mother of parliamentary candidate Afroditi Nestora was killed after a crude bomb made with camping gas canisters exploded under Nestora鈥檚 car, which was parked at the entrance of her apartment building.
Nestora herself suffered burns and briefly left hospital Thursday to attend her mother鈥檚 funeral. Her father and two residents of the building were also injured.
Two attacks on the same night targeting other New Democracy party members caused damage but no injuries.
鈥淥ne day after the funeral of Vagia Nestora, the state honors her memory by leading, as we had pledged to do, the terrorists to justice,鈥� Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who is also the head of New Democracy, said in Parliament. 鈥淚t is democracy’s answer to violence. Democracy’s only answer to violence.鈥�
Greece has a long history of politically motivated violence dating back to the 1970s, with domestic extremist groups carrying out small-scale bombings, usually targeting symbols of power or the property of politicians, police or other authority figures. Many use crude explosive devices, often made with camping gas canisters, mostly causing damage but no injuries.
While the groups most active in the 1980s and 1990s , new ones have emerged.
Police said those arrested were a 29-year-old man in Thessaloniki and a 26-year-old woman on the southern island of Crete on suspicion of involvement in the bombing at Nestora鈥檚 home. Another man was arrested on suspicion of hiding the two in his apartment.
In May 2025, when a bomb she was carrying exploded in her hands. Authorities said the 38-year-old had intended to plant the bomb outside a bank. Two months later, outside the Thessaloniki home of the president of 骋谤别别肠别鈥檚 association of prison guards. He was unharmed but two other people suffered minor injuries from shattered glass.
In April last year, a of Greece’s main railway company exploded in a busy district of central Athens, causing damage but no injuries. The bombing came amid widespread public anger over a that killed 57 people. A claimed responsibility for that attack.
In June 2024, a police officer guarding the home of a top judge in Athens was .
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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece.
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