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Greek Journalist Shot Dead Outside Athens


Greek police say a journalist has been shot dead outside of his suburban Athens home by gunmen using weapons linked to a far-left terrorist group.

Thirty-seven-year-old investigative reporter Sokratis Giolias was shot on his doorstep early Monday, after apparently being lured outside by attackers who told him his car was being stolen. The victim, who was married with a young child, died instantly in what the government called "a cowardly, cold-blooded murder."

Giolias ran a private Athens radio station and wrote a blog that often dealt with political and business scandals.

Police say 16 nine-millimeter shell casings were found at the crime scene. They say the cartridges matched those used by the terrorist group "Sect of Revolutionaries" in previous crimes.

The sect first surfaced in 2008, after police shot and killed a teenage boy in the capital. The group claimed responsibility for killing an anti-terror police officer last year.

The group also claimed responsibility for raking a police station and the headquarters of a private television station with machine-gun fire in February 2009. It later warned of more attacks on police and journalists.<

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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