The future of the Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party hinges on Wednesday, October 7.

The Athens Criminal Court is due to give its verdict during the day in the party's river trial, accused of being a "criminal organization", in which its leader and more than sixty leaders and members of the party were tried for five and a half years.

Highly awaited in Greece, this verdict will be delivered in the morning (8 am GMT) by Maria Lepenioti, who chaired more than 400 hearings and saw 150 witnesses and fifty lawyers.

"They are not innocent"

The anti-fascist movement, trade unions and left-wing parties called for a rally on Wednesday morning in front of the court in central Athens under the slogan "They are not innocent" as large police forces are deployed.

First, the verdict will concern the murder of rapper and left-wing activist Pavlos Fyssas, murdered with knives on the night of September 18, 2013, at the age of 34, in front of a cafe in his district of Keratsini, a western suburb of Athens.

His killer who confessed to the murder, Yorgos Roupakias, member of Golden Dawn, faces life imprisonment.

The other two cases concern two "attempted homicides" also involving members of Golden Dawn: one against Egyptian fishermen on June 12, 2012, the other targeting members of the communist union PAME on September 12. 2013.

It was the shock caused by the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, in a Greece then in the midst of a financial crisis, which prompted the authorities to arrest and bring to justice the leaders and members of this formation, responsible for numerous violence against migrants and activists from left.

In front of the Athens court, the sound of Pavlos Fyssas, alias Killah P, Greek rapper assassinated by a sympathizer of Golden Dawn in 2013. A murder which led to an investigation and opening of 1 trial against members of the party that entered Parliament from 2012-2019.Verdict today pic.twitter.com/1jzFN8atSW

- Athana (@ClementineAthan) October 7, 2020

Prison sentences

Sixty-eight people are on trial, of whom twenty are former deputies and party officials, including its founder and leader Nikos Michaloliakos.

Those accused of "leading a criminal organization" face sentences ranging from five to fifteen years in prison.

Forty-five people are accused of "belonging" to such an organization and face five to ten years in prison, while three others are being prosecuted on other charges relating to the cases on trial.

The main stake of the verdict "is to know if the court will condemn the leadership and the members of the party for the crime of 'constitution and / or belonging to a criminal organization'", explains to AFP Me Kostas Papadakis, lawyer of the fishermen Egyptians.

Because in December 2019 the prosecutor Adamantia Economou demanded their acquittal, considering that the existence of a "criminal organization" had not been proven.

An indictment that has aroused strong criticism from jurists and a large part of Greek society.

"It is legally very difficult for the court to avoid qualifying this party as a criminal organization," said Nikos Alivizatos, constitutional expert and professor at the University of Athens, during a video conference recently organized by the Greek League of human rights.

Small group since the 90s, Golden Dawn was created by Nikos Michaloliakos, 62, negationist and admirer of National Socialism.

An emblematic trial

The socio-political debacle after the financial crisis of 2010 benefited Golden Dawn, whose representatives entered the Greek Parliament for the first time in 2012.

Back then, groups of men in black roamed the streets of Athens, beating their opponents with kicks or iron bars and chanting "Blood, Honor, Golden Dawn".

Represented most of the time by their lawyers, the defendants have denied the charges.

But for the civil party, the exhibits, photos and videos shown at the trial prove that Golden Dawn has a strictly hierarchical structure, trained its members in the handling of weapons, had 'militias' and used Nazi symbols.

Described as "historic" by the political world and the civil party, this trial gradually led to the decline of the formation whose leadership currently denies the Nazi ideology.

In the last legislative elections of July 2019, Golden Dawn did not obtain any deputy.

For Me Chryssa Papadopoulou, lawyer for the family of Pavlos Fyssas, the verdict will be "a key step for justice and for the anti-fascist movement" in Greece and in Europe.

"The impact of the verdict of this emblematic trial" will go "far beyond the borders of Greece" and will have to mean that "hate crimes will no longer be tolerated", also said Niels Muiznieks, director in Europe of Amnesty International.

With AFP

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