GD used status as party 'to impose neo-Nazi ideas'

The leadership of Golden Dawn used its political party status as a vehicle to impose the organization?s neo-Nazi positions through force, according to a judicial ruling that led to 72 GD members, including all the party?s MPs, being indicted on criminal charges.

In their ruling, which stretches to 2,200 pages, the two judges who ordered the indictment noted that Golden Dawn?s involvement in the Greek parliamentary system was exclusively aimed at ?achieving its criminal goals.? ?Golden Dawn?s operational activities were aimed at using violence to tackle anyone who did not agree with their views, immigrants and anyone else regarded as serious ideological enemies,? the ruling said.

The decision to indict all 18 MPs elected on GD?s ticket in 2012, including two who have since become independents, as well as dozens of party members, capped a 15-month probe into the party?s activities.

Isidora Poga and Alexandros Savvas, two of the judges on a three-member panel, ruled that 72 of the 85 original suspects should be indicted on charges ranging from membership of a criminal organization to murder and assault. The third judge, Nikolaos Salatas, favored more lenient treatment, claiming that a group cannot be categorized as a criminal organization unless it can be proven that it profited financially from its activities.