Heather Saunders accompanied her husband's body home from Greece

Military attach� Stephen Saunders was gunned down as he drove to work at the embassy in Athens in 2000.

His was the last of 23 victims which prosecutors say were murdered by the November 17 guerrilla group.

His widow Heather was in the courtroom built inside a maximum-security prison in Athens for the chaotic start to the trial on Monday.

We are not trying this case during wartime - [the cage] is an insult to the defendants' personalities and purely theatrical special effects Yannis Rahiotis, defence lawyer

Bulletproof screens set up around the dock were removed after complaints by some of the suspected radicals that they could not hear proceedings.

They are accused of murders, bombings and robberies during a 28-year-long campaign of terror.

Also among the spectators was Athens mayor Dora Bakoyannis, whose husband was assassinated in 1989.

Defence lawyer Yannis Rahiotis, who represents alleged leader Alexandros Giotopoulos, demanded the removal of the cage because it was an abuse of power.

"We are not trying this case during wartime," he said. "It is an insult to the defendants' personalities and purely theatrical special effects."

Giotopoulos (l) denies involvement but Koufodinas accepts his own role

The case is expected to last for months with hundreds of witnesses to be called to give evidence on November 17's alleged killings, bombings and armed robberies.

But Greece's laws mean the suspects cannot be charged with crimes more than 20 years old, such as the 1975 murder of CIA Athens station chief Richard Welch, which was claimed by the gang.

The 18 men and one woman in the dock are expected to face life sentences if convicted.

Mr Giotopoulos has been charged with nearly 1,000 crimes - every one of the attacks blamed on the group within the 20-year statute of limitations.

The authorities want to guarantee a trial beyond reproach Greek Justice Minister Philippos Petsalnikos

He denies involvement in all the crimes, including the killing of Brigadier Saunders.

In a newspaper interview Mr Giotopoulos said: "The view that I am the leader of November 17 is an invention of American and British secret services."

In contrast Dimitris Koufodinas, known as "Poison Hand", the group's alleged top hitman, has accepted responsibility.

But he says November 17's members are like the "popular fighters" of Greece's War of Independence from the Ottoman empire in 1821.

Brigadier Saunders was en route to work when he was shot

The arrest of suspected members last year, after nearly three decades of failure, was seen as a major boost to Greece, especially ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Justice Minister Philippos Petsalnikos said: "The authorities want to guarantee a trial beyond reproach... to throw light on an affair that caused pain and damaged the country for 30 years."

November 17 took its name from the date of a bloody student uprising at Athens Polytechnic against the military dictatorship in 1973.

The breakthrough for the police came last June, when a bomb being carried by an alleged member of November 17 exploded prematurely leaving him badly injured and in the hands of the authorities. Within weeks there was a wave of arrests.