A trial here involving the murder of a Greek Jew is unfolding like a John Le Carre spy novel.
A Greek arms dealer arrested earlier this month in connection with terrorist activity said in an official statement that the 1992 murder of Elias Cohen, a Greek Jewish psychiatrist, was part of an attempt by Arabs to send a message to the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency.
George Alexakis, an arms dealer who claims to be a CLA informer, further told a magistrate earlier this month that a 1991 fatal bomb explosion in the Greek city of Paras was directly linked to Cohen’s murder.
The arms dealer was scheduled to testify this week at the trial of Vassilis Danalatos, a gunsmith accused of two murders, including that of Chohen.
According to Alexakis, Cohen was believed to be a Mossad agent named Mohamed Yonis, who was involved in the Patras bombing. Yonis allegedly gave a booby trap to a Palestinian ring in Patras in order to uncover the ring. Alexakis has said.
The Patras bomb, on April 19,1991, left seven people dead, including a Palestinian terror rings, one in Salonika and one in Patras, were uncovered.
Ringleader Assad Abu Al Nubani, along with other ring members, was convicted in connection with the blast and sentenced to life imprisonment. At his trial, Nubani testified that the explosion was a Mossad provocation to smear the “Palestinian struggle.”
Alexakis said that once the Arabs believed that Elias Cohen was a Mossad agent, an order was given to execute him one year to the day after the Patras incident.
On April 19, 1992, Cohen was killed while on his way to get his son from his estranged wife, Evdokia.
Despite the alleged connections with the Palestinian bombing, Greek police still believe that Danalatos, charged in the death of the psychiatrist Cohen, killed him in order to continue his affair with the doctor’s wife.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
