Greece’s Golden Dawn leaders sentenced to 13 years in jail

Posted by DanielS on Friday, 23 October 2020 23:05.

Greece’s Golden Dawn leaders sentenced to 13 years in jail

Financial Times, 14 Oct

Neo-Nazi party heads ran criminal organisation responsible for murder and attacks on migrants on trade unionists.

The leaders of Greece’s neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn received 13-year jail sentences on Wednesday for running a criminal organisation responsible for the stabbing to death of a Greek rap artist and violent attacks against migrant workers and leftwing trade unionists.

Nikos Michaloliakos

A special appeals court on Wednesday sentenced Nikos Michaloliakos, the party’s founder, and six other ex-lawmakers who formed its core leadership following a five-and-a half year trial. None of the seven was present in court as all had boycotted the proceeding in protest except when they were called to testify.

Giorgos Roupakias, a Golden Dawn supporter found guilty of stabbing Pavlos Fyssas, a popular leftwing rapper, in a street brawl in 2013 in a low-income Athens suburb, received a life sentence for murder.

Ioannis Lagos, a member of the core group who was elected to the European parliament last year after founding his own political party, dismissed his conviction in a series of tweets, saying he intended to “continue on the same [political] path”.

The group’s requests for leniency on grounds that none had a previous criminal record were rejected by the three judges who presided over the marathon criminal trial which included the examination of some 250 witnesses and frequent delays caused by procedural objections from the defendants’ lawyers.

“This was a political trial . . . the leadership of Golden Dawn received heavy sentences while not being accused of specific crimes. The party is not a criminal organisation, it is a one of national resistance,” Mr Michaloliakos said after the sentences were handed down.

Another 49 Golden Dawn members and supporters were sentenced to between five and 10 years for belonging to a criminal organisation. It was not immediately clear how many of those sentenced would remain free pending appeal.

“Golden Dawn is finished but what they represented continues, whenever attacks occur against refugees or there is discrimination or bullying in neighbourhoods and schools,” said former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, leader of the leftwing party Syriza.

Mr Michaloliakos started his political career as the leader of a pro-junta youth group during Greece’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. After years on the fringes of Greek politics he led Golden Dawn into parliament at the height of the country’s economic crisis in 2012, winning almost 7 per cent of the vote in two successive elections that year.

He rapidly became the country’s most controversial politician because of Golden Dawn’s extremist rhetoric, fascist-style rallies and tolerance of violence by its members.

Yet the governing right-of-centre New Democracy party considered co-operation with Golden Dawn as it struggled to counter a surge in support for Syriza.

The New Democracy government arrested Golden Dawn’s leaders and party bosses in Athens immediately after Mr Fyssas was killed. Mr Michaloliakos spent 18 months in pre-trial detention before being allowed to resume his role in parliament — until the party lost all its seats at a general election last year.

Despite its neo-Nazi ideology, Golden Dawn has not been banned. An opinion poll published after the convictions were announced last week showed that 20 per cent of respondents believed there was a place in Greek politics for a “sober and serious” far-right party.

Tags: Activism, Anti-racism, European Nationalism, Global Elitism, Immigration and Politics, Law & Order, White Genocide: Europe

Comments:

Posted by Guessedworker on Thu, 22 Oct 2020 07:49 | #

There is a strong interest in Greece for a party which gets its ideology right. In the wake of the dissolution of Golden Dawn and the flight from fascistic politics, the main contenders appear to be the National Popular Consciousness of Giannis Lagos, which seems to have absorbed the United Front of Greek Ideology of Compatriots of Kostas Plevris, and Ilias Kasidiaris’ Greeks for the Fatherland founded in June.

Notwithstanding Kasidiaris’ youthful hotheadedness, he always seemed to me to be a cut above the rest of the Golden Dawn MPs and MEPs, both in terms of his political acumen and his intellect. If he stays out of jail he has a chance of building something. According to its wiki page the new party has a serious enough political platform, and is already polling at the (actually very low) level required to win representation in parliament under the Greek system.

The policy platform is:

■ Solving the Greek demographic problem by increasing birth-rates through tax exemptions, economic help and rewarding motherhood.
■ Putting a stop to illegal immigration by immediately deporting every illegal immigrant from Greece, termination of free accommodation and monthly subsidies for everyone who is residing in Greece illegally.
■ Self-sufficient production of all essentials which includes but is not limited to: medicines, food, fuel and firearms.
■ Promoting labour and entrepreneurship through the reduction of all tax rates and their assimilation with those of neighbouring countries, which have absorbed thousands of Greek companies. Furthermore, proper use of public property, attracting investors through the country’s geostrategic upgrades and above all priority to the Greek citizen.
■Upgrade of the Greek Geostrategic Doctrine which includes the declaration of the Greek Exclusive economic zone, expansion of the Greek national waters to 12 nautical miles and a common defence strategy between Greece and Cyprus.
■ Correct exploitation of the Greek hydrocarbon deposits in its Exclusive Economic Zone.
■ New defensive doctrine with an immediate decisive blow against any foreign intrusion. New equipment model for the Greek armed forces with dozens of launch platforms on islands and islets of the Archipelago. Unmanned aerial vehicles and submarines that will create an impenetrable wall of defence. Greek-made weapon-systems with minimal costs.
■ Zero-tolerance policy to criminality. Special police operations to crack down on the illegal camps in the country and abolition of the favourable terms that let many dangerous criminals walk free on a daily basis.
■ Political cleansing. Ending the theft and illegal exploitation of the public wealth by corrupt politicians and Non-Governmental Organisations.
■ Greek education. Preservation of the eternal values of Greek education, preservation of Greek culture and traditions. Defending Christian Orthodoxy against the threat of Islamisation.