Greek court finds far-right Golden Dawn party guilty of operating as a criminal organisation

A Greek court has found the leaders of the country's far-right Golden Dawn party guilty of running a criminal organisation in a landmark verdict that follows a marathon five-year trial.

Golden Dawn entered parliament for the first time in 2012 on the back of an anti-austerity and anti-immigrant agenda, becoming Greece’s third-most popular party at the peak of its worst financial crisis since World War Two.

But the killing of 34-year old leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a party supporter in 2013 prompted a crackdown that led prosecutors to arrest and investigate its leaders and lawmakers over a series of crimes.

The appeals court has since been assessing four cases rolled into one: the fatal stabbing of Mr Fyssas, attacks on migrant fishermen, attacks on left-wing activists, and whether Golden Dawn was operating as a criminal organisation.

On Wednesday, it found Golden Dawn sympathiser Yiorgos Roupakias guilty of killing Mr Fyssas.

It then delivered guilty verdicts against several of the party’s former legislators for participating in a criminal organisation, and deemed others guilty of leading a criminal organisation.

The 68 defendants in the trial - which started in April 2015 and prompted Golden Dawn to claim at the time it was the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt - included 18 former legislators from the party that was founded in the 1980s as a neo-Nazi organization.

The developments marked the first time that elected politicians have been jailed in Greece since a military coup in 1967 and set the stage for the high-profile case to proceed with the court looking into individual charges for the murder Mr Fyssas and other violent attacks.

The verdicts were meanwhile greeted with delight by the tens of thousands of people who had rallied outside the heavily policed appeals court area, holding banners reading “Fascism, Never Again” and “Freedom for the People, Death to Fascism”.

But there was also reported unrest which saw Greek police fire tear gas into the crowds amassed outside the courthouse after fringe elements in the crowd hurled petrol bombs at police, according to Reuters witnesses.

Human rights group Amnesty International, which helped organise a network to record racist violence in Greece, also welcomed the court's rulings and said the decisions would boost efforts to fight hate crimes.

“The accusations against the leaders and members of Golden Dawn, including the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, expose a fissure that exists not just within Greece but across Europe and beyond,” said Nils Muiznieks, Europe director at Amnesty.