Convicted GD member Giorgos Patelis released from prison
Giorgos Patelis, a jailed former member of the now defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, was released from prison by a parole board on Monday after serving just one year of his 10-year prison sentence.
Patelis, who was the leader of Golden Dawn’s Nikaia chapter in Piraeus, had been convicted to 10 years in prison for membership in a criminal organization and for complicity in the murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas.
His lawyer said Patelis’ son was facing mental health problems.
“There is no serious possibility of a new [criminal] act being committed as the specific offense was committed for specific reasons, in view of specific circumstances,” the prosecutor told a five-member appeals tribunal.
The leadership of Golden Dawn was sentenced to 13 years in prison on October 2020, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes.
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.
