Prosecutor seeks trial for total of 70 GD members

The prosecutor handling an investigation into neofascist Golden Dawn on Thursday proposed that all the party’s 16 MPs, as well as two deputies who have quit the party and dozens more GD members stand trial on a string of charges ranging from running a criminal organization to murder and weapons offenses.

In a 700-page report submitted to a judicial council, prosecutor Isidoros Doyiakos argued that 70 of the 85 GD members originally implicated in crimes attributed to the party should stand trial and that all 18 of the MPs elected to Parliament on GD’s ticket in the summer of 2012 had formed part of the party’s “hard core” and had operated with the full knowledge of the party’s leadership. “None of GD’s MPs can claim convincingly that they were unaware of the criminal acts that were consistently carried out over a long period of time in the name of the party,” he said.

Doyiakos added that GD did not publicly condemn any of the offenses attributed to it, except for the murder of leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a self-professed member of GD which caused an outcry.

The report added the criminal activity “would not have developed to such an extent if it was not originating from and being covered up by the party’s leadership.”

A three-member judicial council is expected to issue the final indictments in due course.