Six Golden Dawn MPs including leader Nikos Michaloliakos and another 16 organization members are been held in Greek Police headquarters in Athens. Their detention started in the early morning hours of Saturday and temporarily concluded on Sunday afternoon, when MP Christos Pappas surrender to police. According to prosecutor, Pappas is second-in-command of the “criminal organization”. He arrived to Police HQ per taxi.
Ten more arrest warrants are yet to be fulfilled. Among the 16 arrested civilians are local branch officials, mostly from GD branch in Nikaia, and two members of the Greek police – one special guard and one policewoman.
The arrests followed an investigation by the Supreme Court prosecutor after the murder of leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, 34, by a GD member on September 17th 2013.
The six MPs are formally to be charged with membership and leadership in a criminal organization with the intend to commit crimes. They were expected to defense themselves Tuesday or Wednesday.
The MPs are unlikely expected to resign from their parliamentary mandate preferring to go to court as “elected MPs” than as “common criminals.” Last week, Golden Dawn had leaked rumors that all 18 MPs would resign in order to force elections. The crackdown was sooner than the resignation…
With six MPs behind bars, Golden Dawn has now 12 MPs in Parliament. It is not clear yet whether the party will be banned.
However the government is determined to cut every possible funding to GD MPs and is preparing a bill to deprive the six arrested MPs from their salary and the rest of benefits (cars, personnel etc.). Their bank accounts are to be frozen.
At the same time, authorities are said to request lifting of “bank secrecy” in order to “follow the money path” or else: how did Golden Dawn manage to finance the keeping of several branches across Greece, hire and train personnel, get weapons and other activities.
A question is, of course, how the rest of 12 GD MPs will operate and act now that the party leadership is not …available for instructions.
According to the Supreme Court Prosecutor findings, the party had a strict hierarchical structure with the leader having absolute powers while his orders were sacred and non-negotiable. (“Führerprinzip” in Hitler’s Germany)
“Criminal organization under Parliament Cape”
Supreme Court Prosecutors’ investigation findings were given to public. In the 9-page report, the prosecutor says:
– Golden Dawn operates according to the same “Fuehrer principle” or Führerprinzip used by Hitler’s Nazi party in which the leader has absolute power and his orders are sacred and non-negotiable.
– the party leader oversees a pyramid structure split into two wings: a political one and an operational one, with the latter responsible for carrying out physical attacks on those deemed enemies of the party
– Nikos Michaloliakos is the leader, Christos Papas the deputy leader.
-“Violence for Golden Dawn is the message and not the means to achieve its objectives.”
– According to the neonazi party’s ideology, “those who do not belong to
the popular community of the race are subhumans. In this category belong
foreign immigrants, Roma, those who disagree with their ideas and even
people with mental problems.”
The prosecutor’s findings are reportedly based on four sources on information:
- two full testimonies given to authorities by former Golden Dawn members, The witnesses are under protection.
- lifting of telephone privacy for some 300 telephone numbers
- 34 offenses attributed to Golden Dawn. The list was submitted to prosecutor by Minister for Citizen Protection Nikos Dendias.
- dozens testimonies given to authorities by GD victims.
Greek media report that Supreme Court prosecutor, Charalambos Vourliotis, charge sheet included
- 10 counts of murder and attempted murder
- dozens of assaults
- blackmail.
- Additional charges of money laundering are reportedly to be considered.
Among the “10 counts of murder and attempted murder” are the case of Pavlos Fyssas and that of an Egyptian fish seller.
It has still to be found out whether the murderer of Fyssas has received a direct order to kill the leftist rapper.
It is really sad that a young man like Pavlos Fyssas, had to lose his life in order for the government to move in the correct direction and crack down Golden Dawn. Although it was known long ago that there was something wrong with this so-called political party.
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