Afroditi Nestora, the New Democracy parliamentary candidate whose mother was killed in last week’s firebombing in Thessaloniki, has welcomed the arrest of three suspects and called for the investigation to go further and hold anyone else involved to account.
“I want to express my satisfaction at the swift arrest of the people who murdered my mother and endangered the lives of my father, our neighbors and myself,” she wrote in a Facebook post published after the arrests were announced.
She thanked officers of the Hellenic Police for the coordinated work that led to the arrests, and singled out the prime minister for what she described as his political resolve and zero tolerance for terrorism. She said she hoped the inquiry would not stop with the three now in custody, but would identify anyone who took part, whether directly or as an accomplice.
“Terrorism cannot and must never be tolerated in a democratic society,” she wrote.
A plea against retaliation
With the case now heading to court, Nestora said she hoped the judges would rise to the task and hand down sentences that fit the crime. But she also made a point of saying that she and her family want the suspects to receive a fair trial, even after what she called the unjust loss of her mother’s life.
“We do not want Thessaloniki to burn, and we do not want the vandalism and destruction this country has seen in the past,” she wrote. “That is exactly what sets the rule of law apart from the political violence that some people in Greece continue to incite.”
She closed by thanking those who came to her mother’s funeral on Thursday, and reserved a particular word of gratitude for Alexia Bakoyannis, whom she described as a woman and a daughter who knows better than most what it means to lose a parent to terrorism. Bakoyannis is the daughter of the late New Democracy politician Pavlos Bakoyannis, who was assassinated by the November 17 terrorist group in 1989.
