Golden Dawn leader to be released from jail
Nikos Michaloliakos, the former leader of the now-defunct neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn who was serving a multi-year prison sentence for running a criminal organization will be released from jail, a court ruled on Thursday.
The Judicial Council of Misdemeanors of Lamia ruled that the former leader of Golden Dawn fulfils the formal requirements for a conditional early release.
At the hearing, the public prosecutor argued against Michaloliakos’ release, saying that although he meets the legal requirements, he has shown no remorse for his actions or moral improvement, citing his extensive writings where Michaloliakos claims he is imprisoned because of his political beliefs. The Council, however, deemed that the articles glorifying the neo-Nazi ideology do not constitute illegal actions.
Based on the court decision, he is banned from leaving Attica, is required to appear at his local police station in Pefki once a month, and is not allowed to associate with the other defendants in the Golden Dawn crime case.
Michaloliakos was convicted in October 2020 to 13 years in prison for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes in a landmark ruling, following 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 were jailed for between five and seven years for membership of a criminal organization, while a party associate was given a life sentence for the murder of Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas in a 2013 attack that triggered the crackdown against the party.
Kathimerini
