Golden Dawn trial: Leader Michaloliakos in court, provocative, without remorse
November 6, 2019
Greece
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A crucial moment in Golden Fawn trial: Leader of the far-right party, Nikos Michaloliakos, took a seat in the court room on Wednesday in order to testify in the long-running trial. He is accused of running a criminal organizations with the party members involved in several attacks against migrants and the murder of Pavlos Fyssas.
Michaloliakos denied all charges and blamed current and former GD members for everything in order to save himself. The leader of a party organized in “strict military structure” claimed he knew nothing about what the party members did or did not.
he appeared in court provocative and without remorse. He supported Golden Dawn, but denied crimes were committed by the party. He declared himself “innocent” and “a nationalist” and said he was not a “Nazi.” He stated that he knew nothing about the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas and downgraded the murder committed by a GD member saying “one man killed another.”
The court room in the Court of Appeals in Athens was bursting full with strong security measures. Tension between Michaloliakos supporters and anti-fascists was not avoided.
The 61-year-old Golden Dawn leader denied charges of running a criminal organization that targeted migrants and leftists. He denied the accusations as “fake and politically motivated.” he claimed to be a victim of a “political witch-hunt lasting 25 years.”
Michaloliakos had written his testimony on paper and read from it, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him that can send him in prison for 20 years.
“For the first time in the history of Greece, by the recommendation of the Greek state, the leader of a political party is sitting in the court room for the actions committed by a party member,” he said regarding the charges for the murder of 33-year-old rapper Pavlos Fyssas.
He claimed that in its early days GD was a “group of people” who had no political ambitions.
He reiterated he was politically targeted by the Samaras government.
Attempting to justify his sentence “You are the raid squads” as he had stated in a speech in Thermopylae in 2012, he claimed he was referring to the audience, children and women.
He denied that the party had “raid squads.”
To his admission of “political responsibility”: for the murder of Fyssas, Michaloliakos during an interview with real fm, he claimed that this was “rhetoric.”
He further claimed that he heard of the Fyssas’ murder “the following morning” and dismissed the testimony of a GD member that the party leader “was up the whole night.” He said that the defense witness “was lying.”
When Michaloliakos’ testimony ended and he stood up, tension broke out between his supporters and antifascists. The first chanted “Blood, honor, Golden Dawn.,” the latter “Pavlos lives, smash the Nazis.”
When Michaloliakos entered the court room on Wednesday morning his 70 supporters stood at attention.
Friends and supporters of the Fyssas family booed him, the mother, Magda Fyssa, shouted at him “Dog!”
Michaloliakos will continue his testimony on Thursday.
The court decision is expected beginning of 2020, six and a half years after the Golden Dawn trial started.
