A Palestinian electrician arrested in Crete on suspicion of planning an explosive attack against Israeli-linked targets in Europe has been remanded in custody after telling a magistrate he had been blackmailed into undergoing Hamas training in Malaysia — while prosecutors allege a cruise ship was among the potential targets.
The 37-year-old, whose name has not been released, faces charges of forming and joining a terrorist organisation, receiving military training to conduct terrorist acts and illicitly supporting a terrorist agenda.
During his deposition before an Athens investigative magistrate, he said he had travelled to Malaysia believing he was taking up legitimate electrical work.
"They tricked me," he testified through an interpreter.
"They threatened me and forced me to undergo training against my will."
He also named his alleged recruiters.
His defence attorney, Spyros Pantazis, challenged the prosecution's case as circumstantial. "The character and background of the accused are far removed from the archetype of a committed terrorist," Mr. Pantazis said after the closed hearing.
"He is a scapegoat in a case built on weak evidentiary material full of gaps and contradictions."
The court rejected a petition for conditional release, citing the severity of the cross-border threat. European law enforcement agencies are using the suspect's testimony to trace linked cells across several EU member states.
The arrest is the centrepiece of a multinational counter-terrorism operation first reported this week — in which Greek intelligence also launched a manhunt for two further operatives, one believed to be hiding inside Greece.
The operation marked what Greek authorities described as a strategic shift by Hamas toward targeting European soil for the first time in the organisation's history.