Greek police scoured the country yesterday for two convicts who orchestrated a brazen helicopter prison break for the second time in three years, deeply embarrassing authorities who had vowed to improve security.
Vassilis Paleokostas, a bank robber who is among Greece’s most notorious convicts, and Alket Rizaj, 34, were picked up on Sunday afternoon by a helicopter that flew over the courtyard of Athens’ Korydallos prison.
The two had escaped the exact same way from the same prison in June 2006 and had been due to appear in court yesterday in connection with that escape.
Paleokostas, 42, had remained at large for more than two years until being recaptured in August. While on the run, he was suspected of masterminding last June’s kidnapping of a prominent Greek industrialist, Giorgos Mylonas, who was held for 13 days until his family paid a ransom.
Sunday’s prison break was another deeply embarrassing blow for Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. His conservative government, which holds a razor-thin majority of one seat in parliament, has been buffeted by financial scandals, weeks of extensive riots sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager in December and the re-emergence of domestic terrorism.
Karamanlis rejected opposition calls on Sunday for early elections, but called a meeting for yesterday to discuss the prison break.
Justice Minister Nikos Dendias fired three top officials for the escape — the ministry’s top prison security official, the inspector-general of prisons and the head of the Korydallos prison.
“This [escape] was an insult that I will not accept ... I will take measures as harsh as necessary,” he said after visiting the prison on Sunday evening.
Police arrested three prison guards and the helicopter pilot yesterday.
Dendias has also called for a probe into the bank accounts of all the guards working in the wing where the two convicts were held.
A ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Paleokostas is believed to have about 5 million euros (US$6.4 million) stashed away from the ransom reportedly paid to free Mylonas.
Although the exact details of Sunday’s escape were unclear, the Justice Ministry said Paleokostas and his accomplice climbed a rope ladder thrown to them by a woman passenger in the helicopter.
Guards on the ground opened fire and the woman fired back with an automatic rifle, authorities said. No injuries were reported.
A local resident captured part of the escape on amateur video.
The grainy footage shows a helicopter rising from the prison and flying off across the city after shots are heard.
The pilot was later found bound, gagged and with a hood over his head. He reportedly told police the helicopter was chartered by a couple who said they wanted to go from the town of Itea in central Greece to Athens. He said he had been threatened with an automatic AK-47 rifle and a grenade and forced to fly to the prison.
Police said that the helicopter, found abandoned near a highway north of Athens, was struck by a bullet that hit its fuel tank and sprung a leak.
The two convicts had been held in solitary confinement, but were allowed to take their daily walk on the prison grounds together, despite their previous escape.
Paleokostas was serving prison sentences of more that 25 years for a 1995 kidnapping, several robberies and arms possession. His previous escape operation had been masterminded by his elder brother Nikos, himself a convicted criminal who escaped from the same prison in 1990 during a mass breakout.
Nikos Paleokostas was recaptured in September 2006 and is still in jail. He has been convicted of 16 bank robberies.
Rizaj, an Albanian immigrant, was serving a life term for murder.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: MOFA demanded Beijing stop its military intimidation and ‘irrational behavior’ that endanger peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region The Presidential Office yesterday called on China to stop all “provocative acts,” saying ongoing Chinese military activity in the nearby waters of Taiwan was a “blatant disruption” of the “status quo” of security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. Defense officials said they have detected Chinese ships since Monday, both off Taiwan and farther out along the first island chain. They described the formations as two walls designed to demonstrate that the waters belong to China. The Ministry of National Defense yesterday said it had detected 53 military aircraft operating around the nation over the past 24 hours, as well