Golden Dawn leaders sentenced to 13 years for running criminal neo-Nazi party

A Greek court sentences extreme-right Golden Dawn party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and six other former lawmakers to 13 years in prison, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes.

A seventh party official is sentenced to 10 years.

The landmark ruling follows a five-year trial of dozens of top officials, members and supporters of Golden Dawn, an organization founded as a neo-Nazi group in the 1980s that rose to become Greece’s third-largest political during a major financial crisis in the previous decade.

Eleven other former parliament members are jailed for between five and seven years for membership of a criminal organization, while a party associate is given a life sentence for the murder of Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas in a 2013 attack that triggered the crackdown against the party.

Arrests will be carried out after the court hears final arguments for probation considerations.

Golden Dawn was blamed for orchestrating multiple attacks, mostly in Athens, against immigrants and left-wing activists, many resulting in serious injury.

— AP

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