A far-left extremist group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the murder of a Greek investigative journalist who was gunned down in front of his Athens home last week, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA). The group calling itself Revolutionary Sect sent a message to the Greek daily newspaper Ta Nea, claiming responsibility for the shooting of 37-year-old Socratis Giolias. The group did not give a motive for the attack.
Giolias was killed by three people who fired a pair of nine-millimetre handguns in front of his home in the Athens suburb of Ilioupoli in the early hours July 19. His wife, who is pregnant with their second child, said the gunmen asked the journalist to come out of his house, claiming someone had stolen his car and then opened fire. Officials later discovered the burned remains of the stolen car the gunmen used as their getaway vehicle near the scene.
Giolias was head of news at the radio station Thema 98.9 and had previously worked on one of Greece's main investigative television shows. He also wrote a blog, Troktiko, which often focused on scandals.
The shooting is the first murder of a journalist in Greece in more than two decades after the terrorist group November 17 assassinated a newspaper publisher. Sect of Revolutionaries first emerged in December 2008 following the police shooting of a teenager in Athens and has since shot dead an anti-terroist officer. The group also shot at a police station in February 2009 and the headquarters of a private television channel in Athens.
