Ex-Golden Dawn MPs deny Nazi links
The trial of Golden Dawn continued on Friday with the testimonies of two former MPs of the neo-Nazi party, both of whom claimed to have been unaware that GD championed Nazi ideals.
Panagiotis Ilioupoulos sought to convince the court that he was not a Nazi sympathizer even though he has a tattoo with the Nazi greeting “Sieg Heil” (Hail Victory) on one of his arms. He claimed not to have known what the phrase meant and that he simply “liked the font.”
“If I had realized that the party I was in from 2007 until now was national-socialist, I would have left,” said Iliopoulos, who quit the party after it failed to re-enter Parliament in July elections.
Another former GD MP, Polyvios Zisimopoulos, also claimed not to have known anything about the party espousing Nazism or engaging in criminal activities.
It remains unclear when Yiannis Lagos, a former prominent GD MP who was elected as an MEP earlier this year, will appear in court as his lawyer has cited his client’s heavy workload.
