Guerrillas planned attacks before trial: Greek police

Suspected members of an urban guerrilla group arrested this week were planning a series of attacks ahead of the trial in Athens on Monday of 13 fellow radical leftists, Greek police said on Saturday.

Police arrested five people, including a German woman, on Thursday and Friday, and have charged them with participating in a terrorist group, committing terrorist acts and possessing weapons.

During the investigation that followed the arrests, police said they found draft documents claiming responsibility for a series of attacks the suspects were planning to stage ahead of the Monday trial of 13 people who are believed to be members of the fire conspiracy cells group.

"These attacks would have been staged in solidarity with the group's members going on trial on January 17," the police said in a press release.

The police have said they were searching for people connected with a makeshift bomb attack last year on a building belonging to electricity utility PPC when they made the arrests.

Guns, computers and other equipment were seized at two apartments in Athens as part of the search.

The fire conspiracy cells group has claimed responsibility to a series of attacks last year, including parcel bombs sent to embassies and an explosion which damaged a court house in Athens last month.

Police have said they believe the five people they arrested this week have links to the group.

Greece has a decades-old history of leftist violence and some groups become more active after riots in December 2008 which paralysed Athens.