Greece Recaptures Suspected Militant on Two-Year Run

Greek police on Friday recaptured a suspected member of a far-left militant group who had been on the run for over two years, a police source said.

Costas Sakkas, 32, is awaiting trial on charges of belonging to extremist group Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, whose members have been convicted of bombings.

He had been conditionally released from pre-trial detention in July 2013 after going on hunger strike for over a month, and disappeared in February 2014.

Sakkas, who denies the charges against him, was caught in the company of suspected bank robber Marios Seisidis, wanted for nearly a decade.

The two men were riding in a stolen car and were intercepted by police motorcyclists in the Peloponnese during a random check.

They attempted to flee and were captured after a 45-minute chase, the police source told Agence France Presse.

Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei, listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States, had sent parcel bombs to European leaders and embassies and carried out a wave of arson and bomb attacks.

Police in 2011 carried out several arrests and said they had dismantled the group.

However, there have since been sporadic arson hits against government targets in support of jailed Conspiracy members, many of them carried out in the name of an Italian-based outfit, the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI).