Security lapse probed

Investigation into bomb blast that hurt Papademos points to serious shortcomings

A month-and-a-half after Lucas Papademos and two other people were hurt after the former prime minister opened a letter bomb in his car, an investigation by the Greek Police (ELAS) into the circumstances surrounding the incident has pointed to serious security lapses.

The probe is being overseen by the force’s department for the protection of VIPs, which is also responsible for the security of Greece’s Parliament building, Kathimerini understands. The official who is in charge of the investigation has already started probing the circumstances under which the parcel bomb ended up in the hands of Papademos, who was seriously injured in the blast. The official has summoned members of Papademos’s security detail as well as Parliament guards who had been entrusted with checking his mail that day in Parliament’s x-ray machine.

According to a well-informed source, all three of the officers that had been accompanying Papademos from central Athens to his home in the northern suburb of Psychico that day were summoned last week to explain their movements. The Parliament guards who failed to check the envelope are expected to be called on to do the same thing.

Investigators are reportedly paying close to attention to the testimony supplied by a 35-year-old member of Papademos’s security detail, who brought the former premier’s mail to Parliament that day.

A police source with knowledge of the investigation told Kathimerini that the probe will be completed within two months.

Meanwhile authorities remain on standby for a possible fresh terrorist attack. Sources cite concern that the guerrilla group Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire had indicated in March, after claiming responsibility for a parcel bomb sent to German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, that a new proclamation was in the cards.