[ALBSA-Info] Daily Mail

[Agron Alibali]

DAILY MAIL (London) 
November 30, 2001 


EIGHTEEN MONTHS AFTER MY HUSBAND WAS MURDERED, I'M STILL WAITING FOR JUSTICE FROM GREECE 
AS THE PLANESPOTTERS' PLIGHT WORSENS, ONE WOMAN LOOKS ON WITH ESPECIAL SYMPATHY - PROMPTED BY HER OWN TRAGIC EXPERIENCE IN GREECE. HEATHER SAUNDERS' HUSBAND, BRIGADIER STEPHEN SAUNDERS, WAS MURDERED BY TERRORISTS IN ATHENS LAST YEAR AND NO ONE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO JUSTICE. THIS IS HER STORY E 


More than 18 months after my husband was gunned down, his killers, from the militan Left-wing nationalist group known as November 17, are still at large. 

Indeed, as far as I am aware, not one single member of that pernicious organisation has ever been caught, in spite of a series of brutal political murders of public figures, foreign and Greek, over the past quarter-century. 

So I need no persuading that the wheels of justice, Greek-style, grind frustratingly slowly. So slowly, sometimes, that the temptation is to give way to frustration and anger - and to conclude that members of the security services, police and judiciary are not merely incompetent, but are perhaps being deliberately obstructive. And to conclude (however unfairly) that the Greek government doesn't really care about its relationship with this country or its reputation with other EU members. 

There are even experts - though I am not convinced by them - who say members of November 17 appear to live a charmed life because they are protected by members of the socialist (Pasok) government who have some residual revolutionary sympathy for their anti-Western rhetoric, if not their ghastly activities. 

That is why I feel so strongly for the 12 British planespotters. Common sense and the evidence produced so far suggest that this slightly nerdish group were doing no more than following their strange hobby with too much enthusiasm. 

Of course, you can argue that they were foolish to do so with quite such enthusiasm in a Balkan country which - with some historic reason - has long been fearful for its national security and is now more nervous than ever. 

Its relations with Turkey have always been appalling, and now post-communist Albania is also seen as a threat. And Greece has historically seen itself as defending the European front line against Islamic expansionism. But the truth is surely that the 12 were foolish and foolishness is not a crime - even in Greece. So why are they now languishing in horrifying jails? Perhaps my experience with Greek politicians, security men and bureaucrats, since the murder of my husband, can help provide some answer. 

I write as one who knows Greece, and who continues to love that sometimes infuriating nation in spite of what happened to my husband - and what happened subsequently. 

That is why I am so concerned today for the image that country is presenting to the world. 

You must begin by realising that Greece is a very foreign country. Only recently, as a result of its membership of the EU, is it even beginning to adopt what might be called West European ways. 

As I discovered after the murder of my husband, things move desperately slowly and questions of honour and pride - both personal and national - are desperately important. 

The sympathy I received from ordinary people and public figures was overwhelming and sincere and did much to sustain me. But to get rapid and effective action from the police, the judiciary and the intelligence services was another matter. 

The idleness, incompetence and the Byzantine complexity of the internal politics of these organisations has been notorious - and until recently simply accepted by most Greeks. 

Ironically, some members of the current government, including Prime Minister Costas Simitis, are, I am convinced, genuinely determined to modernise the country. But it takes an infuriatingly long time to achieve results. 

Let me give you two examples. For many years, it has been clear that Greece's anti-terrorist laws were weak and ineffective. After the death of my husband, the government accepted that there was a problem. Even so, it took more than a year to get new legislation onto the statute book. 

And when Scotland Yard's offer to send a team of anti-terrorist specialists to Greece to work with the officers investigating Stephen's murder - and to help train the Greek security services - was taken up, they found very little evidence was available concerning a quarter of a century of atrocities committed by November 17. Was this past idleness or incompetence, or had the evidence been destroyed by Left-wing elements within the investigating authorities? Who can tell? 

But the investigation into my husband's death and the fate of the planespotters suggests that we should proceed cautiously with plans for common European arrest warrants and extradition procedures. 

Meanwhile, if the Greek government cannot bring themselves to send the 12 home at once, they should at least be given bail or decent prison accommodation. 

Anything less would confirm the feeling is growing in this country - and which I deplore - that Greek criminal investigations and justice are tainted and not to be trusted, and that Greece is not to be trusted. 

I hope and pray that this is not the case. 




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