A 46-year-old woman accused of involvement in the 2010 Marfin bank firebombing has been remanded in custody after appearing before the 3rd investigating magistrate in Athens, with the decision also approved by a relevant prosecutor.
The woman, in similar fashion to two 42-year-old men arrested last month in the reopened case and subsequently placed in pretrial detention, faces multiple counts of intentional homicide in connection with the deaths of three bank employees killed in the attack.
Through her lawyer the 46-year-old submitted a lengthy written defense statement to the investigating magistrate, outlining her arguments before answering questions.
Earlier, her sister testified as a defense witness.
The two women claimed to have been together at a demonstration on May 5, 2010, when the Marfin bank branch on central Stadiou Street was firebombed during a mass protest against austerity measures.
“I am innocent. I took part in the demonstration, but I had nothing to do with the incidents,” the defendant reportedly stated in her defense. At the same time, the same reports have her acknowledging that she knows the other two defendants. “I know my co-defendants by sight from the anarchist scene,” a reference to self-style anarchist and anti-state groups active in central Athens over the past decades.
In what’s expected to be the core of the defense’s arguments in any possible criminal trial, her attorneys claimed that a police analysis of photographs does not establish her identity but only indicates “limited evidence for similarity.” Her attorneys also maintained that the same evidence had been examined in 2022, when the investigation was archived.
The defense team also submitted a report by its own technical adviser, who concludes that analysis of the digital evidence contained in the case file reveals no difference from the material examined by authorities in 2022.
The woman was extradited from Britain to Greece last week after Greek authorities reopened the case. She had been living in Brighton for several years and was arrested at London’s Gatwick Airport, where she worked, on July 13 after Greek authorities activated an Interpol Red Notice. She had previously contacted authorities in Greece after learning that she had been named in the investigation, denying involvement and expressing a willingness to return to the country to provide her account of the case.
She arrived in Athens on the evening of Aug. 6 on a commercial flight accompanied by officers from Greece’s organized crime unit. The international arrest warrant against her was formally executed the following day before she was brought before judicial authorities.
The renewed investigation into the Marfin case, which had remains unresolved for more than 16 years, led to the arrests of the two 42-year-old men in Greece and the 46-year-old woman in Britain. The case was reopened after an anonymous email named suspects, while authorities re-examined witness testimony, photographic material and digital evidence collected during a separate 2020 investigation.
The Marfin arson was the result of masked perpetrators throwing firebombs and flammable material into the bank branch, trapping the employees inside.
Three bank workers died from smoke inhalation: 32-year-old Angeliki Papathanasopoulou, who was four months pregnant, 36-year-old Epameinondas Tsakalis and 35-year-old Paraskevi Zoulia.
The latest investigation has involved new forensic analysis of photographs and digital material using modern technology, including artificial intelligence, with authorities examining physical characteristics as well as distinctive clothing and personal items visible in images from the day of the attack. Defense lawyers have disputed the strength of the evidence and argued that it does not amount to definitive identification of their clients.
