Prosecution calls for Golden Dawn trial to be speeded up

Twelve attorneys for the prosecution in the ongoing trial against neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn have filed a petition demanding that the proceedings be speeded up with daily sessions that will be restricted to the Athens Court of Appeals.

The case against the leadership, key officials and members of Golden Dawn, sparked by the fatal stabbing of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in September 2013 by a self-professed member of the far-right party, started in April 2015 and aims to rule whether the party constitutes a criminal organization, with a hierarchy that is responsible for ordering the attack on Fyssas, among other incidents. These include several brutal assaults against migrant workers and left-wing activists.

The trial has so far consisted of 253 sessions and at the current pace is expected to drag on until 2020 at the earliest. Nearly 250 prosecution witnesses have taken the stand, while there are at least 230 witnesses for the defense still to be examined.

In the petition to the new head of the court and to recently appointed Justice Minister Michalis Kalogirou, the attorneys asked that the judicial officials involved in the case be absolved from other duties so that sessions be held daily and also for hearings to be restricted to downtown Athens court rather than also held at the specially designed courtroom at Korydallos Prison near Piraeus.