Four people convicted on Wednesday in the case against the far-right Greek party Golden Dawn have been ordered to serve prison sentences after Greece’s appeals court upheld key parts of the landmark ruling that declared the group a criminal organisation.
Among those being sent to jail is Eleni Zaroulia, a former member of parliament for the party and the wife of its founder, Nikos Michaloliakos. Zaroulia was sentenced to five years in prison for membership of a criminal organisation. Three other convicted members also received prison terms ranging from five to seven years.
At the time of the original trial, the four defendants had been allowed to remain free while their appeals were pending, meaning they had not previously served time in prison.
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Those now being incarcerated include Giorgos Dimou, who received a seven-year sentence for complicity in the murder of anti-fascist musician Pavlos Fyssas and for membership in a criminal organisation. Konstantinos Papadopoulos was sentenced to seven years for attempted murder in the violent attack on Egyptian fishermen and for participation in the organisation, while Georgios Skalkos was also handed a seven-year sentence for complicity in Fyssas’s killing.
In total, 42 defendants were convicted in the appeals ruling. Twenty-four have already served their sentences and have been released on parole. Others remain behind bars, including Giorgos Roupakias, who confessed to stabbing Fyssas to death in 2013, and former Golden Dawn lawmakers Ilias Kasidiaris and Giannis Lagos.
The murder of Fyssas, a rapper and outspoken anti-fascist, triggered a sweeping investigation into Golden Dawn that culminated in one of the most significant trials of a far-right group in Europe in recent decades.
Outside the courthouse, Fyssas’s mother, Magda Fyssa, reacted emotionally to the ruling. “Pavlos, we did it. Pavlos, you defeated them. I’m taking my Pavlos and leaving,” she said after the verdict was announced, holding a sign declaring that Golden Dawn had been definitively recognised as a Nazi criminal organisation.
The appeals court also confirmed the convictions of the party’s leadership. Michaloliakos, the party’s long-time leader, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for directing a criminal organisation. The same sentence was imposed on several other senior figures, including Kasidiaris and Lagos, while another senior member, Artemis Mattheopoulos, received a 10-year sentence.
Roupakias, the perpetrator of Fyssas’s killing, was sentenced to life imprisonment plus an additional 10 years.
The opposition party SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance described the decision as “a clear victory of democracy against hatred and neo-Nazism”, saying the court’s rejection of requests for mitigating circumstances confirmed the judiciary’s final ruling that Golden Dawn operated as a criminal organisation.
