The sentence was handed down on Wednesday, after Mihaloliakos and others within the party's top echelon were found guilty last week of running a criminal organization disguised as a political party.

Five people in the vicinity of Mihaloliako are also sentenced to 13 years in prison based on the same charge.

Among them are Christos Pappas and the party's former spokesperson Ilias Kassidiaris, who was frequently described after throwing a glass of water at a female politician during a televised debate and for hitting another in the face.

Kassidiaris has recently formed a new nationalist party.

Ioannis Lagos, who is in the European Parliament, is also sentenced to the same sentence and has said that he will appeal the ruling to the European Court of Justice.

Nikolaos Mihaloliakos is also sentenced to one year in prison for illegal possession of weapons.

Several other former members of parliament, including Mihaloliako's wife Eleni Zaroulia, have been sentenced to between five and ten years in prison.

Murder 2013

The trial began in 2015 and is one of the most notable in the modern political history of Greece.

The investigation was launched after the murder of the anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013, but soon became a series of crimes committed by party members, ranging from murder to perjury.

Fyssa's killer, a Golden Dawn sympathizer, is sentenced to life in prison.

The victim's father is disappointed with the verdicts.

- They're too short.

I'm not satisfied.

I had hoped that they would have 20 years, he says to the news agency AFP.

The court's three judges will now decide whether it may be relevant to postpone any of the sentences pending appeals.

Those who are not allowed to postpone their sentences will probably be detained later this week.

50 convicted

When the homes of several party members were searched through 2013, unregistered weapons and Nazi flags were found, among other things.

In total, more than 50 people have been convicted of crimes related to the party.

The prosecutors stated in court that the Holocaust denier Mihaloliakos led his party with a military hierarchy with Hitler's Nazi party as a model.

He has led the party, which for a time was the third largest in Greece, for over 30 years.

In last year's parliamentary elections, Golden Dawn got no seats.

The party claims to be exposed to a politically motivated conspiracy on the part of the government.