Photo: Thousands of people crowded outside the court building in the centre of Athens, EPA images
Members of the Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, known as Chrysi Avgi in Greek, have been found guilty of a number of crimes, including murder, after a trial which took 5 years to complete. 68 members of the gang were on trial with, 18 being former members of the Greek parliament, including their leader Nikos Michaloliakos.
The convictions included that Golden Dawn was a criminal organisation, in a conviction similar to the RICO laws used in the United States.
The group was notorious for destroying market-stalls of foreigners, openly giving Nazi salutes, denying the Holocaust and being involved in mass organised violence against immigrants and political opponents.
Further charges related to attacks on left-wing trade unionists and Egyptian fisherman, and the 2013 murder of Greek leftist musician Pavlos Fyssas. Giorgos Roupakias had already admitted being a member of Golden Dawn and stabbing the 34 year-old artist to death but has however remained on bail for the last 7 years.
Roupakias, who murdered Pavlos Fyssas, was said to have told officers when he was stopped immediately following the murder "I did it, don't tell anybody, I'm one of you."
The officer in question was himself of an immigrant background and arrested him.
The trial is believed to be the biggest trial of fascists in Europe since that of the Nazis in Nuremberg following the Second World War.
Thanassis Kampagiannis of the prosecution stated:
"We have had trials of fascists or fascist crimes but we have not since the end of the Second World War had a trial of a fascist criminal organisation which is also a party, which has MPs, so it is very important."
Tens of thousands of anti-fascist and trade union protestors surrounded the court, which was barricaded by as many as 2,000 police officers, to await the verdict being read out.
Η στιγμή της ανακοίνωσης του τριμελούς Εφετείου Κακουργημάτων: Η Χρυσή Αυγή αποτελεί εγκληματική οργάνωση. https://t.co/xetW6bpkdm pic.twitter.com/aLNtPQDcdm
— NEWS 24/7 (@News247gr) October 7, 2020
As jubilation struck the crowd on hearing the verdict, the police moved in firing tear gas and letting off stun-grenades. Some in the crowd then responded with petrol bombs and a small series of clashes continued.
Golden Dawn came to prominence after the Greek economic crisis of the late 2000s, and as a result of the mass migration crisis that has affected the country since the early 2010s. In the 2012 Greek general election, they shocked the world when they received 7% of the vote and became the third largest party in parliament.
The party lost all of its seats in parliament following the 2019 Greek general election. Sentencing will be passed on those convicted in due course.
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