Golden Dawn leaders guilty of running crime gang

ATHENS, Oct 07 (BBC): After a trial lasting more than five years, the leadership of Greece's neo-Nazi party has been convicted of running a criminal organisation.

Big crowds gathered outside the court in Athens as the judges gave verdicts on 68 defendants.

Golden Dawn won 18 MPs in 2012 as Greeks were battered by a financial crisis.

The criminal inquiry into the party began with the murder of an anti-fascist rapper in 2013.

Leader Nikos Michaloliakos and six colleagues were convicted of heading a criminal group. Supporter Giorgos Roupakias was found guilty of murdering an anti-racist musician and 15 others were convicted of conspiracy in the case.

Some 2,000 police were being deployed around Athens Appeals Court as thousands of protesters demanded long jail terms, carrying banners that read "fear will not win" and "Nazis in prison", Greek media reported.

Tear gas was fired into the crowd as clashes began.

Hundreds of witnesses gave evidence in the trial, which this year has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the centre of the trial are Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos and 18 ex-MPs who were elected in 2012 when the neo-Nazi party came third in national elections on an anti-immigrant, nationalist platform. Golden Dawn no longer has any MPs in parliament,

After they won almost 7% of the vote in May 2012, emboldened supporters attacked political opponents and migrants.

Golden Dawn supporter Giorgos Roupakias had already confessed to the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas. The musician was chased down by thugs and stabbed in Piraeus in September 2013.