Three lawmakers from far-right party Golden Dawn were remanded to custody over the weekend. Yorgos Germanis, Panagiotis Iliopoulos and Stathis Boukouras are currently in the headquarters of Greek police and will be transported to Korydallos prison in Athens, pending trial.
According to the charges, the three MPs belonged to a criminal group and the prosecutor had evidence linking the extreme right party to a series of racist attacks, including the killing of leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in September 2013.
The three lawmakers deny the charges.
One of them, Stathis Boukouras, even went a step further and claimed he was not member of Golden Dawn but just a ‘friend’ of the party and that he was politically close to socialist PASOK, currently a coalition government partner.
With the three lawmakers in prison, the number of GD MPs in custody rises to five. Also in custody is the leader of the party Nikos Michaloliakos. Some others are free on bail.
The trial date has not been set yet.
“Golden Dawn is a legitimate political party taking on a sincere political struggle,” Iliopoulos told reporters earlier on Saturday, flanked by dozens of flag-waving supporters, some chanting the party’s “Blood! Honour! Golden Dawn!” slogan.
“We will not buckle. Golden Dawn will be victorious – Greece will be victorious,” he said.
Party leader Nikos Mihaloliakos and dozens more senior party officials were arrested last September following the stabbing of rapper Pavlos Fissas and were charged on what prosecutors say is evidence linking the party to a series of attacks.
The public arrests of the party’s top brass riveted the country, which has not witnessed a mass round-up of elected politicians since a military coup nearly five decades ago.
Golden Dawn rose from being a fringe party to win 18 seats in parliament in elections in 2012. It has drawn on anger over the debt crisis, budget cuts, high unemployment and corruption to become the Greece’s third most popular party in surveys, but it lost about a third of its support after the killing.
As part of government efforts to clamp down on the party, parliament last year voted to cut off state funding for the group.
Golden Dawn, whose emblem resembles a swastika and whose members have been seen giving Nazi-style salutes, rejects the neo-Nazi label. (via Reuters)
When the prosecutors’ decision for Germenis and Iliopoulos became known on Saturday evening, Golden Dawn supporters verbally attacked journalists with vulgar expressions, while some threw water bottles against journalists on live reporting. Preset were also three other GD MPs.
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On Sunday, during the interrogation of Boukouras, other GD MPs were involved in verbal attacks against journalists. Reporters just left, when party spokesman, Ilis Kasidiaris – released on bail in November 2013 – wanted to make a statement.
