The wife of Brigadier Stephen Saunders, the murdered British attache, said yesterday that she was shaking at news that her husband's killers had been convicted over a 30-year killing spree.

Brigadier Saunders, the UK's military attache to Athens, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Greek capital in June 2000 by the November 17 terrorist cell.

November 17 is blamed for dozens of armed robberies, hundreds of bombings and 23 killings since 1975.

Besides Brigadier Saunders the group's victims include four American envoys, two Turkish diplomats, and prominent Greek political and business figures.

The convictions came at the beginning of a lengthy procedure to read through all the hundreds of charges against the 18 men and one woman.

Sentencing is expected later this week.

Shortly after the first of the verdicts was announced yesterday in Athens, Heather Saunders said she could not believe that everything had come to a head.

''I'm actually sitting here, sort of shaking,'' she told BBC TV.

''It's sort of so unreal that it's all come to a head today, if you know what I mean, when we've got wonderful celebrations going on in London and, you know, other things going on in the rest of the world.

''It shows how diverse the world is.''

Brigadier Saunders, 52, was the last victim in November 17's 28-year campaign of terror.

Two of the suspected November 17 members are accused of taking part in his killing.

After a nine-month trial the three judges issued guilty verdicts for participation in the group against Alexandros Giotopoulos, whom prosecutors alleged was the ringleader.

Others convicted included the group's key hitman, Dimitris Koufodinas.

Savvas Xiros, a 40-year-old religious icon painter, and Koufodinas are accused of ambushing Brigadier Saunders as he drove to work in Athens.

Angeliki Sotiropoulou is accused of being an accomplice to the crime.

The group's suspected leader, Giotopoulos, is also accused of complicity in the Saunders case.

A proclamation from the group claimed that Brigadier Saunders, from Dorset, had been gunned down because of Britain's role in the Nato attacks on Yugoslavia in 1999.

Mrs Saunders conceded yesterday that she had helped ensure her husband's killers were brought to justice.

''I suppose I spoke out, and my friends would say 'Well, that's not unexpected - once she starts she can't stop', but I spoke out the day after and I think that's what sort of started this whole ball rolling really,'' she said.

After her husband's death, Mrs Saunders began a public campaign to keep the memory of his murder alive and to press the Greek government and public not to let the killers escape. After countless trips to Greece last year she filed a civil action allowing her to take part in the trial of 17 members of the terror group.

She gave a tearful testimony to the court, denouncing the killers as ''madmen'', and said that they should be given long jail terms but not executed.

Mrs Saunders said she had wanted people to become more aware of the group.

''I tried to emphasise through information we had and the evidence that had been gathered by the Greek police over the years that this was a small group and not some huge terrorist group that has the right to hold Greece to ransom,'' she said.

''In sort of breaking down the fears of what the group might be, when they made their mistakes a year ago, it all fell apart because it was a tight-knit bunch and, once one fell, the whole pack fell to the ground.''

''This is why it's actually very important that it's all been cleared up, sorted out and done and dusted before next year (the Athens Olympic Games) because the thought of a terrorist group loose with a lot of innocent people enjoying sport and something which should be beyond politics would be just dreadful, absolutely awful.''

Brigadier Saunders's widow said she had known nothing about the terror group ''until the day they killed my

husband.''

Yesterday's court ruling had added poignancy, she said, because, had her husband been alive, she was certain he would have taken part in the celebrations for the victorious England rugby World Cup team.

''He would have watched every match and been in tears at the end of it,'' she said.

''He was very pro-British and very proud of the positive things we could do and I think we probably would have been up at some god-awful hour and been up there in Trafalgar Square today if he'd been alive.''