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Greek far-right lawmaker arrested on treason-linked charges

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greek anti-terrorism police in Athens arrested an extreme far-right lawmaker on treason-linked criminal charges Monday, more than two days after he evaded arrest by speeding past a series of police highway checkpoints.

Constantinos Barbaroussis has been charged with committing preparatory acts for high treason over his exhortations last week for the armed forces to arrest the country's leadership, to hinder a deal with neighboring Macedonia over that country's name.

The preliminary agreement was signed Sunday, and full ratification will take months.

Barbaroussis subsequently retracted his remarks, which he said had been misinterpreted. His lawyer, Panagiotis Koradzopoulos said the charges were "excessive."

"It was an unfortunate choice of words ... (but) which clearly were not such as to result in the crimes he is accused of," Koradzopoulos said Monday.

Police say Barbaroussis was arrested in a house in the northern suburb of Penteli, and offered no resistance. He will remain in police custody until Wednesday, when he is to appear before an examining magistrate.

Barbaroussis was elected with the Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn party. It evicted him for his comments made Friday in parliament during a debate linked with the Macedonia deal.

His calls for the military to arrest Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, together with Greece's president and defense minister, sparked outrage in parliament, with Golden Dawn's other lawmakers - who had laughed and applauded at Barbaroussis' remarks - expelled from the debate.

Barbaroussis disappeared after the incident and was spotted speeding in his parliament-issued car on a highway west of Athens late Friday, but managed to escape arrest by driving past police checkpoints at a speed of over 180 kilometers (112 miles) per hour in pouring rain.

Arrests of Greek lawmakers on criminal charges were unheard-of until the rise of Golden Dawn on a nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-bailout platform amid Greece's financial crisis.

The party's leadership and several lawmakers were arrested in 2013 after the murder of a leftwing activist by a party member. They have since been freed due to delays in the trial process. Barbaroussis has also been charged in that case.

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