Google – AFP, 28 Sep 2013
Athens —
Greek police on Saturday cracked down on the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party,
arresting its founding leader and four other members in parliament, following
the murder of a leftist musician allegedly by a party activist.
The arrests
came a day after Golden Dawn threatened to pull its lawmakers out of
parliament, a move that could trigger a political crisis in the recession-hit
country.
In dawn
raids, Greek anti-terror police arrested Nikos Michaloliakos, who founded the
party in 1980, along with party spokesman and MP Ilias Kassidiairis and three
other lawmakers, police said.
The charges
against them included belonging to a "criminal organisation", and for
some of the suspects also assault and murder, according to a source in the
justice ministry.
Nikolaos
Michaloliakos, leader of Greek
far-right party Golden Dawn, speaks at a
press
conference in Athens on May 6,
2012 (AFP/File, Louisa Gouliamaki)
|
About a
dozen party members, including two police officers, in the Athens area were
also being questioned in the ongoing police operation which is expected to lead
to more arrests, police and judicial sources said.
The police
sweep came after Greece's supreme court, which has been charged with
investigating the far-right group, issued arrest warrants for some 30 members.
Golden Dawn
Saturday urged its followers to demonstrate against what it called an
"illegal decision" and several hundred faithful had gathered in front
of the police station where the suspects are being held.
Amid a sea
of Greek flags, the protesters chanted the party's slogan, "Blood, honour,
Golden Dawn", watched over by anti-riot police.
"Golden
Dawn is still there, it will not retreat. You can't put its ideas in prison, we
will fight to the end," Artemis Matheopoulos, a party MP, told AFP.
The party
currently has 18 lawmakers in parliament and prior to the musician's murder was
the third most popular political grouping in the country.
"This
government is determined not to allow the descendants of the Nazis to poison
our social life, to commit crimes, terrorise and undermine the foundations of
the country that gave birth to democracy," Greek Prime Minister Antonis
Samaras warned in a televised address a day after the killing.
Any trial would be 'fair'
Any trial would be 'fair'
Greece's
justice minister Charalambos Athanassious said Saturday that if the arrested
party members are prosecuted, "the trial will be fair... our democracy is
strong."
Those
arrested are expected to appear before a magistrate later Saturday or on
Sunday.
Golden Dawn
leader Michaloliakos has threatened to pull the group's deputies out of
parliament, a move that would prompt by-elections in 15 regions around the
country.
"We
will exhaust any means within our legal constitutional rights to defend our
political honour," Michaloliakos told reporters late on Thursday.
"If
the country enters a cycle of instability, it is those who demonise Golden Dawn
who will be responsible, not (us)," he said.
By-elections
could hurt Samaras's coalition government, which has a slim majority of 155 MPs
in the 300-seat parliament, and could cast into doubt Greece's ability to
fulfil its obligations to creditors on multi-billion-euro bailouts.
Formerly on
the fringe of Greek politics, Golden Dawn's popularity has skyrocketed as it
tapped into widespread anger over unpopular reforms in a country that is
currently slogging through its sixth year of recession and where unemployment
among the youth stands at a staggering 60 percent.
It went
from 19,000 votes a few years ago to over 426,000 in June 2012 elections after
pledging to "scour the country" clean of illegal immigrants.
The party,
whose leader has denied the Holocaust, has sent black-clad squads to smash
market stalls owned by migrants, held torch-lit rallies lambasting political
opponents as "traitors" and "thieves", and organised food
donations exclusively for ethnic Greeks.
It has also
been blamed for a series of brutal attacks on migrants and political opponents,
though it strenuously denies any responsibility and claims to be the victim of
slander.
"We
are rejoicing that the anti-fascist and anti-racist movement has forced the
prime minister to make some arrests," said human rights group Keerfa,
adding that the politicians have "for too long protected the action of
neo-Nazis."
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