‘Joker’ arrested for bomb threat at Athens metro station

Greek police have arrested a 16-year-old “joker” for threatening to bomb a metro station in western Athens. This is the first arrest of its kind, although dozens of such threatening phone calls have been made over the past decade.

The teenager was arrested on Good Monday, April 10, in the village of Megara in western Attica. The day before, he made a bomb threat call at the Egalio metro station, which turned out to be a hoax. A “Joker” called from a pay phone in the central square of Megara to the direct action call center of the Greek police, saying that a bomb had been planted at the Egaleo metro station.

A police patrol car rushed to the scene, the caller was easily identified and led to his arrest. The teen was taken to the local police station and released shortly thereafter with a verbal order from the prosecutor.

It should be noted that the Egalio station was not closed after the threatening call, as had happened repeatedly in the past, indicating that the police probably immediately realized that this was a hoax and therefore immediately arrested the perpetrator.

At least 22 calls threatening Egaleo metro station were reported by athenstransport.com, resulting in a similar number of temporary station closures between November 2010 and July 2020. However, most of the calls took place between 2015 and 2018.

For the past three years, the station has been closed due to similar calls in July 2021 and again in May 2022. Threatening phone calls about other stations, such as Panormo last October, are much less frequent.

However, the fact that the arrested man is only 16 years old and the police immediately figured him out, realizing that it was a prank and not a real threat, makes it extremely unlikely that he is behind most of the previous calls, given also his young age, the site notes. Adding that it would be interesting to know why the Egaleo station was chosen in this case.

In any case, the police have reason not to ignore most telephone threats of this kind. On February 25, 2012, a subway conductor found an incendiary device planted in a train car at the Egalio station, which at the time was the terminus of the 3rd metro line. A new organization (which has not resurfaced since) claimed responsibility for this, and there was no warning phone call, which means the perpetrators may have needed victims.

The arrest of a minor last week could discourage some “pranksters” from committing such heinous acts, the site comments.

It is worth noting that both in Greece and in other countries such calls are qualified as “telephone terrorism”. A young man, if he was a little older, could be charged under section 187A Greek Penal Code (Law 4619/2019), according to which, depending on the purpose and damage, the sentence can range from 3 to 12 years in prison.

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