Golden Dawn Trial Postponed as Party Leadership Was Absent

Golden-Dawn-Trial-in-AthensThe first day of the highly anticipated Golden Dawn trial only lasted two hours as the neo-Nazi party’s leadership was absent. The court was adjourned until May 7.

Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and the rest of the party’s leadership, a total of 14 MPs, were absent. Giorgos Roupakias, the perpetrator of the murder of musician-activist Pavlos Fyssas was present.

Outside the high security Korydallos Prison, in Athens, Greece, where the trial is held in a specially constructed courtroom, there were two separate protest rallies: One of Golden Dawn members and another of anti-fascist groups.

The trial started at 9:20 am with the judge announcing the case, the names of the 69 accused and the names of witnesses. The Golden Dawn members and associates are accused of forming and operating a criminal organization. They also face charges ranging from murder to racist violence.

The trial, expected to last for one year, will likely decide the future of Greek Parliament’s third-largest party, an openly racist and anti-Semitic group that used to be on the fringes of national politics but whose popularity soared as the country sank into economic crisis.

Authorities expect the possibility of a confrontation between opposing protesters, both inside and outside the prison.

Inside, anti-fascist and anti-racism groups that have vowed to keep a close eye on the proceedings are planning to supply enough supporters to offset an expected crowd of Golden Dawn members.

“Golden Dawn members usually cram (into) the courtroom from dawn. We do not want this to happen, and will take all necessary measures to prevent it,” anti-fascist activist Takis Giannopoulos told AFP in the run-up to the trial.

Outside, local authorities are also preparing for disturbances, with police erecting barriers to keep the rival groups apatrt.

“This is Greece’s biggest trial in 40 years. It will last at least 18 months. There will be gatherings by anti-fascist groups and Golden Dawn supporters,” Korydallos mayor Stavros Kasimatis told AFP ahead of the trial.


  1. So now it’s possible to imprison and potentially ban a party because their views are considered extreme by others. This is not democracy.

  2. No because when u spread hate that is a crime ok it is ok to be nationalist but when u start using violence then they are criminals.

  3. Golden Dawn waged a pre-election campaign via a prison payphone, with half of GD’s MP’s in prison on pre-trial detention, and most of the rest either under house arrest, or with court orders barring them from addressing the public or speaking to the media. The GD MP Nikos Mihos was not even permitted to leave his house to vote, and ALL state funding has been cut off since October 2013. Golden Dawn was subjected to a total media botcott asides from negative slanderous coverage. SYRIZA had none of these restrictions. Despite all of the above Golden Dawn emerged as the 3rd most popular politi al party in Greece!

    As Tsipras breaks all his pre-election promises to the Greek people, and continues to enforce the EU-ECB-IMF Troika’s memorandum, Golden Dawn remains the only viable option for the Greek people to break their nation from the clutches of the international Troika usurers.

  4. Golden Dawn were members and their leader were imprisoned. How could they stand for power whilst in prison?

  5. RENA DOUROU, the Syriza Governor of Attica (Greece’s most populous region) travelled to the USA this week, met with Obama and stated that if SYRIZA fails, Golden Dawn will come to power next. You talk as though SYRIZA can afford to take the support given to them by the Hellenic electorate for granted. They can’t.
    The SYRIZA-ANEL coalition government continues to slavishly implement the same “bailout” memorandum that the New Democracy-PASOK coalition regime implemented so faithfully before them. Nothing has changed so far.
    How long will the patience of the Hellenic people last? 6 more months? 12 more months? As time goes by and the Hellenic people see that their personal financial situation is the same or worsening, as they observe ever greater number of illegal 3rd world immigrants on their streets they will abandon SYRIZA. If Tsipras’s pseudo-leftist government doesn’t do what it promised, Golden Dawn will gain immensely. People didn’t vote for Syriza because they subscribe to a leftist ideology; these same people will vote for the only anti-bailout, anti-troika party that remains on the Greek political scene, that party is Golden Dawn.

  6. If Syriza fails then then a new leftist party will come Greece is 55 percent leftist.

  7. Keep dreaming Greeks rather be communist then fascist I know my country very well ok read history of Greece in world war 2 the the resistance was all communist 250,000 thousand strong

  8. The only reason why Syriza were voted in is to clear out Greece’s public debt and end austerity. Now that they have broken their promises, the voters will now see the Golden Dawn as the only anti-usurer party able to gain office and effect change.