Golden Dawn Parliamentary Spokesman Christos Pappas on Wednesday filed a civil suit against Citizen Protection Minister Nikos Dendias and the chief of the Greek Police Lt Gen Nikos Papagiannopoulos for slander, ‘perversion of institutions’, and ‘suppressing legal public actions’ with the Supreme Court prosecutor.

The party accuses Dendias of trying to politically exploit the actions of the party on September 7-8 against foreign vendors in street markets and proceeding to act in ways that were beyond the bounds of legality. Among the charges it makes against the minister, there is even that of harbouring criminals – namely, the unlicensed street vendors targeted by the party.

It repeated objections to a decision to withdraw police guards supplied to protect the party’s MPs and also the stationing of police vans and patrol cars outside the party’s headquarters, claiming that their purpose was to check the identity of those entering and leaving.

OFFICER SUSPENDED

An officer who was serving as a guard to MP Kostas Mparmparousis has been suspended from work and is facing expulsion from the force, after video footage showed him participating actively in the far-right group’s raid on an open-air market in Mesolongi on Saturday.

ARRESTS

Four men were arrested in Mesolongi on Tuesday after asking a street vendor to check her licence.

The 58-year-old woman asked for explanations which the young men failed to give. She immediately called the local police station and two policemen were sent to the open air market, where they arrested two of the four men, aged 25 and 20. The other two had already fled the scene when the police arrived.

The young men called Golden Dawn MP Kostas Mparmparousis, who had led the raid in Mesolongi last week, to ask for his assistance. According to newspaper To Vima, shortly afterwards the two men who had earlier fled the scene showed up at the police station and were also arrested.

The four men were not wearing Golden Dawn T-shirts or anything else that could identify them as members of the far-right group.

To Vima reports that two of the men were sentenced to eight months in prison with a three-year suspension, while the other two were released after being found innocent.
Source: Athens News/dv