Twenty people, identified with a self-styled anarchist group that's achieved notoriety by barging into ministries and diplomatic missions, usually to throw paint and toss pamphlets, were apprehended on Monday after trying enter the grounds of a multi-storey building housing Greece's top law enforcement agencies.
According to reports, only one man out of the group, "Rouvikonas", entered the grounds outside the building, where the citizen's protection ministry is located - a euphemism for the public order or home affairs portfolio.
Armed police guards prevented the others from entering and arrested everyone on site.
The latest "intervention" aimed to press for another prison furlough to be issued to infamous "17 November" assassin Dimitris Koufodinas. The latter has begun a hunger strike after a request for a third furlough was denied by a corrections board.
Members of the same anti-state group entered another well-guarded ministry in November 2017, then breaking through security at the main gate and entering the court yard of the defense ministry in Athens.
A subsequent posting, ostensibly by members of the same group, on a website that serves as a "bulletin board" for self-styled anarchist and anti-state groupings stated: "The truth is that we face less repression than those of other revolutionary movements in Greece, today or in previous decades".
In a quick reaction on his official Twitter account, main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis was quick to ridicule the incident, writing:
"In order to support Koufodinas Rouvikonas even broke into the citizen's protection ministry this morning. It's to be expected, with so much protection that it enjoys from the government. This is Mr. Tsipras' 'normality'," Mitsotakis wrote, aiming his quip at his political rival, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras.
