Golden Dawn

Greek police say they have arrested a Golden Dawn member over an assault against five people at an anarchist hangout in Piraeus almost three years ago.

Ahead of the resumption of the long-running trial over the alleged criminal action of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn (GD) on June 17, the lawyers representing the victims called for daily hearings to speed up the proceedings in case a new coronavirus outbreak in the fall disrupts the courts.

The long-running trial over the alleged criminal action of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn (GD) resumed on Wednesday after the December holiday break, with one of the lawyers of the family of murdered antifascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas making her closing statement.

Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos testifying in the Athens appellate court today said he had no involvement in the murder of anti-fascist rapper by Yorgos Roupakias whom he described as a lone ranger who killed Pavlos Fyssas of his own volition and that he was informed of the event the next day.

More than four years since the launch of the criminal trial against Greece's neofascist Golden Dawn, party leader and founder Nikos Michaloliakos took the stand for the first time on Wednesday.
In his testimony, Michaloliakos denied charges of running a criminal organization that targeted migrants and leftists, denouncing the accusations as fake and politically-motivated.

Six years after musician and rapper Pavlos Fyssas was murdered by a self-professed member of Golden Dawn and over four years after the trial into the neo-Nazi party got under way, the time is nearing for its 18 former lawmakers to take the stand.

Wednesday was the sixth anniversary of the murder of Greek musician and rapper Pavlos Fyssas by Golden Dawn member Giorgos Roupakias in Keratsini, a western suburb of Piraeus.

Its trial as a criminal organization is entering the final phase despite the systematic foot-dragging of its cadres, who did not hesitate to insult the memory of the murder victim even during court proceedings.

Magda Fyssa, the mother of the 34-year-old rapper Pavlos Fyssas who was killed by Golden Dawn member Giorgos Roupakias in 2013, stands by a monument to her son in Keratsini, Wednesday, marking six years since his death. To her right is the father of Shehzad Luqman, a 27-year-old Pakistani laborer who was killed by GD supporters in the same year.

An anti-fascist rally marking six years since the killing of a leftist musician by a member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn got underway in the district of Keratsini on Wednesday, headed by the victim's mother, Magda Fyssa.

The march will end at the offices of Golden Dawn in Piraeus.

Golden Dawn European Parliament Member Yiannis Lagos and former MP Nikos Michos were found guilty on Friday over a July 2013 attack on a community center in the eastern Athens suburb of Ilioupoli.