The Athens Court of Appeal on Wednesday returned a guilty verdict for the leadership of far-right Golden Dawn on charges of forming a criminal organisation.
The leader of Golden Dawn Nikos Michaloliakos and six former Golden Dawn MPs were found guilty of running a criminal organisation. The Athens Court of Appeals delivered guilty verdicts for Christos Pappas, Artemis Matthaiopoulos, Ilias Panagiotaros, Ilias Kasidiaris, Yiannis Lagos and Giorgos Germenis.
The other former MPs on trial, as well as the two Golden Dawn members Giorgos Patelis and Anastasios Pantazis, were found guilty of joining and participating in a criminal organisation.
The court also delivered a guilty verdict for all defendants accused of the attempted murder and inflicting serious bodily harm in the attack on members of the PAME trade union bloc, as well as a guilty verdict for all charged for the attempted murder in the case of the foreign fishing boat workers.
READ MORE: Greek-Australians make statement against Golden Dawn ahead of 7 October courtcase
Earlier, the court had found defendant Giorgos Roupakias guilty of all charges for the murder of Pavlos Fyssas and the other defendants in the case guilty of acting as accomplices.
The reading of the verdict in the trial of the far-right party Golden Dawn began in the Court of Appeals in Athens at 11:20am on Wednesday, when court president Maria Lepenioti started to read out the names of the accused.
Most of the defendants were absent, with only 11 present in the courtroom and none from among Golden Dawn’s leadership. There were stringent security measures in the courtroom, including the imposition of safe distances to avoid spreading COVID-19.