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Greek court imposes jail terms on neo-Nazi Golden Dawn leaders
7:09 CAT | 15 Oct 2020
Presiding judge Maria Lepenioti announces sentences during the trial of leaders and members of the Golden Dawn movement, in Athens, Greece, October 14, 2020. [Photo: Reuters]
- The landmark ruling follows a five-year trial of top officials, members and supporters of Golden Dawn, an organisation founded as a neo-Nazi group in the 1980s that rose to become Greece’s third-largest political during the 2008 financial crisis.
A Greek court has sentenced the leadership of the Golden Dawn movement to 13 years in prison, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organisation blamed for numerous violent hate crimes.
Presiding judge Maria Lepenioti read out the sentences against Nikos Michaloliakos and other former lawmakers on Wednesday.
The landmark ruling follows a five-year trial of dozens of top officials, members and supporters of Golden Dawn, an organisation founded as a neo-Nazi group in the 1980s that rose to become Greece’s third-largest political party during a major financial crisis in the previous decade.
The court handed down 13-year jail terms to six former lawmakers, including Mihaloliakos.
Other former lawmakers were sentenced to 5-7 years in prison for being members of a criminal group. The court will decide later this week if any of the sentences can be suspended.
European Parliament member sentenced
As well as Michaloliakos, the party’s founder – who received an additional one year for illegal possession of a weapon – the court also sentenced five former members of his inner circle to prison terms on the criminal organisation charge.
They included current independent European Parliament member Ioannis Lagos.
Greek judicial authorities must send a request to the European Parliament for Lagos’ immunity to be lifted.
Killing of Pavlos Fyssas
Golden Dawn’s top figures were arrested in 2013, after the killing of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a party supporter prompted huge protests across Greece and led to a government crackdown on the party. Police found unlicensed weapons and Nazi flags in the homes of party members.
On Wednesday, the court also imposed a life sentence and 10 years in jail to Golden Dawn member Yiorgos Roupakias for the murder of Fyssas.
Source: TRT World
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