Greek police capture fugitive after year-long manhunt

After a year-long manhunt, Greek police have recaptured Christodoulos Xiros, a member of the Marxist group November 17 who went missing while he was on leave from prison to visit his family.

Xiros, 56, had been serving six life terms for his role in November 17, an armed group that killed 23 people, including politicians, businessmen and diplomats, from 1975 to 2000. Police found him riding a bicycle near the house he had been renting in the coastal town of Anavissos, outside Athens. He was armed but made no attempt to resist when he was taken into custody, police said. To disguise his appearance, police said, the dark-haired fugitive had grown a goatee and dyed his hair blonde.

His escape was an embarrassment for Greece, which offered a reward of 4 million euros for his capture after he vanished on Jan. 7, 2014 while on furlough from the Korydallos prison in Athens. Xiros’ ability to evade the police for nearly a year highlighted the fragility of Greece’s criminal justice system, which has been strained by the country’s deep financial crisis. While on the run, Xiros appeared in a video vowing to avenge the pain that ordinary Greeks have suffered under the austerity measures imposed by the government in order to receive international bailout funds.

“It's time for battle," Xiros said in the video, according to the BBC. "I have decided to thunder the guerrilla shotgun against those who stole our lives and sold our dreams for profit,” he added, and vowed further attacks against politicians.

One of several armed groups active in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, November 17 made its first high-profile assassination in 1975, when it claimed responsibility for killing Richard Welch, the CIA station chief in Athens. The group targeted officials and prominent businessmen, including Greek members of parliament and the British military attaché Stephen Saunders, who was killed in June 2000 in Athens. Xiros, who was convicted in 2003 of involvement in the attacks, was among more than a dozen members of November 17 whose incarceration effectively dismantled the group. The U.S. still designates it as a terrorist organization.

Greek authorities have been concerned about the prospect of a resurgence of similar groups during the economic crisis. Xiros' arrest follows that of Nikos Maziotis, a member of a group called Revolutionary Struggle, after a shootout in central Athens in July 2014.

Al Jazeera and wire services