Greek militants jailed for life

November 17 is named after a student uprising against Greece's then military junta in 1973. It made its first appearance in 1975, the year after the junta fell, when it assassinated CIA station chief Richard Welch.

The group is accused of carrying out 23 murders and dozens of bomb and rocket attacks, all of them in or around Athens, in the last three decades. Its members cannot be prosecuted for the four murders the group committed before 1983 because Greece has a 20-year statute of limitations.

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The court sentenced November 17 leader Alexandros Yiotopoulos, 59, to 21 life terms for instigating the 19 murders for which the group has claimed responsibility since 1983. They include the killing of four US officials and British defence attache Stephen Saunders.

Dimitris Koufontinas, 45, the group's chief of operations, was sentenced to 13 life terms for carrying out as many assassinations, including the murder of Saunders in 2000.