Two arrested in Greece for 2010 bank arson attack that killed three

Greek police have arrested two men, aged 42, on suspicion of involvement in a deadly arson attack on a Marfin bank branch in Athens in 2010. The fire, ignited by Molotov cocktails during widespread protests against Greece's first financial bailout, claimed the lives of three bank employees, including a pregnant woman.

Authorities have also issued an international arrest warrant for a 46-year-old woman, who reportedly resides in the UK with her family and had left Greece a year after the tragedy. While she is believed to have played a secondary role, the two arrested men are considered to have had direct responsibility for the firebombing. The police had no concrete leads in the case for 16 years until an anonymous online complaint provided crucial information.

The incident occurred on May 5, 2010, amidst a 24-hour general strike and protests by approximately 200,000 people against austerity measures linked to the bailout from European institutions and the International Monetary Fund. As the main protest march proceeded, a group of masked individuals threw Molotov cocktails and a gasoline bottle into the Marfin bank branch on Stadiou Street.

Most employees managed to escape to an adjacent building, but three were trapped on the third floor and died from asphyxiation. A suspect was arrested shortly after the attack and brought to trial for intentional homicide, but was acquitted in 2016 due to insufficient evidence. A separate trial in 2013 resulted in convictions for the bank's CEO and building manager for negligent homicide and failure to implement fire safety measures.

It later emerged that employees were present at the bank on the day of the strike and protests, despite the high probability of unrest in central Athens, out of fear of being dismissed. The current investigation, reactivated by the Hellenic Police's Department for the Suppression of Violent Crime, has involved extensive inquiries both domestically and internationally, including requests for digital evidence from foreign journalists who covered the 2010 events.