A Greek court rules the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn guilty of acting as a criminal group. Chief members are the leader, Nikos Michaliokos, and Ilias Casidiaris, Ilias Panagiotaros, Ioannis Lagos, Christos Pappas, Georgos Germenis and Constandinos Barbarousis.
A Greek court found neo-Nazi Golden Dawn guilty of acting as a criminal organisation, on Wednesday, in a landmark verdict on the Marathon five-year-old trial against the country's extreme right-wing party. Security was tight, and more than 15.000 people gathered in an anti-fascist rally outside the court.
The 68 defendants in the trial included 18 former Members of Parliament from the party that was founded in the1980s, as a neo-Nazi organisation and rose to become Greece's 3rd largest party in parliament, during the country's decade-long financial crisis.
The court has been assessing four cases into one, the fatal stabbing of Greek rap singer, Pavlos Fyssas, attacks on migrant fishermen, attacks on left-wing activists and whether Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organisation.
The presiding judge of the three-member panel began reading the verdicts, delivering a guilty judgement against Giorgos Roupakias for the murder of Fyssas, caused powerful applause inside the courtroom and among the crowd outside. Rupakias had been accused of being a party supporter who delivered the fatal stab to Fyssas.
Party leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, and 17 Members of Parliament face at least 10 years in prison. Dozens of others on trial, party members and alleged associates face conviction on charges that range from murder to perjury mostly linked to a series of attacks in 2013.
Only 11 of the defendants were present at the courtroom, with the rest represented by their lawyers. None of the former Golden Dawn lawmakers was in court. Security was tight, with around 2.000 police deployed as well as drones and a police helicopter. The avenue outside the Athens courthouse was closed off to traffic and the building itself blocked off by a string of police busses.
More than 10.000 people, including politicians from all political parties, gathered outside the courthouse. The crowd waved banners with slogans "Fyssas lives, crush the Nazis" and chanted "The people demand the Nazis in jail".
Police fired teargas into a crowd after the verdict was handed down, to disperse protesters who threw firebombs on the sidelines of the rally demonstration. Representatives of all parties of the political spectrum, from the governing New Democracy party to Greece's Communist Party, were also outside the courthouse.
"The war against violence and hate is constant," said New Democracy's Giorgos Stergiou, noting that it was under a New Democracy government that the prosecution of Golden Dawn began.
"Today the victims and society seek justice," said centre-left party leader, Fofi Genimata. "We are here because there is no room for fascism in our lives".
At the crux of the case is whether the string on violent attacks can be linked to Golden Dawn's leadership and whether the party was operating as a criminal organisation. A preliminary investigation has indicated that the party operated as a paramilitary group, with orders handed down from the party leadership to neighbourhood organisations and onto assault groups which carried out attacks on migrants that often led to serious injuries.
The human rights group Amnesty International, which took part and helped to organise a network to record racist violence in Greece, said that Wednesday's verdict and would boost the efforts of those trying to prosecute hate crimes.
The accusations against the leaders and members of Golden Dawn includes the murder of Pavlos Fissas, "expose a fissure that exists, not just in Greece but across Europe and beyond" said Nils Muizniek, Europe's director of Amnesty. "The impact of the verdict is what is an emblematic trial of an extreme far-right party with aggressive anti-migrant and anti-human rights stances will be felt beyond Greece's borders".
A tragic figure was Magda Fyssa, the mother of the victim Pavlos, who after the verdict of the trial raised her arms and said: "Pavlo, we have won".
Golden Dawn denies any direct link to the attacks and describes the trial and charges brought against the party's leadership as an unprecedented conspiracy.
Greek Flag by Parvez Taj
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