A Greek appeals court on Wednesday upheld convictions for leaders and members of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn in a landmark trial over crimes committed at the height of the country’s economic crisis. The court found the officials guilty of “running a criminal organisation”. The presiding judge is still to announce the punishments meted out to the more than 40 defendants, some of whom risk sentences of up to 15 years in prison. The police minister at the time of the Golden Dawn arrests, now Defence Minister Nikos Dendias, welcomed the ruling as “a historic milestone for the Greek justice system and the rule of law in Greece”. Crimes attributed to the group include the savage beating of a group of Egyptian fishermen in 2012 and the murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013. More than 200 people rallied in front of the tribunal in a show of support for Fyssas, whose killer, Giorgos Roupakias, was again convicted of murder. Senior prosecution lawyer Kostas Papadakis said Wednesday: “The criminal condemnation of the assault squads of the Nazi criminal organisation is now final, and the sentences are expected in the coming days.”
via rtl.lu: Guilty of ‘running a criminal organisation’ Greek court upholds convictions in neo-Nazi party trial
siehe auch: Greek Court Confirms Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn is ‘Criminal Organisation’ Athens appeal court upholds guilty verdicts for members of prescribed extremist party, five-and-a-half years after the first-instance ruling. The Criminal Appeal Court in Athens ruled in a final judgment on Wednesday that the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn party is a criminal organisation and that 42 of its members convicted in the first-instance verdict five-and-a-half years ago were guilty. “The final judgment, that Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation, creates a final barrier to the impunity of fascist violence for many decades in Greece,” Kostas Papadakis, a lawyer for Egyptian fisherman Abuzid Embarak, a victim of attempted murder by Golden Dawn members in 2012, told BIRN. As in the first-instance ruling, seven members of Golden Dawn’s management, including its founder, Nikos Michaloliakos, and administrative executives Ioannis Lagos, and Ilias Kasidiaris, were found guilty of leading a criminal organisation and 11 former MPs were found guilty of membership. Giorgos Roupakias was found guilty of the intended murder of the anti-fascist artist Pavlos Fyssas in 2013, and 15 defendants were found guilty of complicity in the murder. Finally, five defendants were found guilty of the attempted homicide of the Egyptian fisherman Embarak in Perama, a suburb of Piraeus, in 2012.