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(Reuters) - A Greek prosecutor pressed charges of treason and trying to destabilize the country against unknown suspects on Wednesday over an alleged 2008 plot to overthrow the then-conservative prime minister, Costas Karamanlis.
Court officials said the plan was hatched to thwart efforts by Karamanlis efforts to improve energy relations with Russia and included overthrowing and even killing the premier. It was not clear who was behind it.
"An investigative prosecutor will now try to locate the persons who devised and organized the plan," said a court official who requested anonymity.
The official said the charges were prompted by press reports about a Russian document revealing the plot and came after testimony from Greek secret service agents, police and Karamanlis' security guards.
Karamanlis, who lost elections to the socialists in 2009 in the wake of a series of financial and political scandals, had improved ties with Moscow and advanced plans for a major pipeline to bring Russian gas to western Europe.
Court officials said the prosecutor also concluded that some of the violence that erupted after the police shooting of a teenager in December 2008 was part of the plot aimed at destabilizing Greece.
The boy's killing and the weeks of violence that gripped the country shook Karamanlis' government and led to snap elections the following year.