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Greek Who Prosecuted Palestinian is Murdered by Terrorist Group

January 25, 1989
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A Greek terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the murder Monday of a Supreme Court prosecutor here who prosecuted Palestinian terrorist Abdel Osama al-Zomar.

Anastassios Vernados, 61, argued the case against Zomar, who did time in a Greek prison for smuggling explosives and was recently allowed to leave the country.

He is wanted by the Italian authorities for the October 1982 machine-gun and grenade attack on the main synagogue in Rome, in which a 2-year-old child was killed and scores of people were wounded.

But the Greek authorities ignored Italy’s longstanding extradition request and deported Zomar to Libya when he finished his prison term last month.

Vernados had argued for extradition and the Supreme Court ruled in favor of it, but was ignored by the government.

It is not known whether Vernados’ murder was linked to the Zomar case.

A note found near the scene of the crime, signed by the leftist “1st of May” terror group, accused the prosecutor of “crimes against the people and the workers.”

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