Golden Dawn trial drawing to a close, over five years on
The long-delayed trial against Golden Dawn is expected to come to a close on Friday, with final summations by the lawyers representing the neo-Nazi party’s founder and leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, and members of his family.
Golden Dawn stands accused of constituting a criminal organization with a structured hierarchy that ordered or was aware of criminal activities carried out by party members and officials, including the September 2013 murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas.
The judicial investigation into the party was triggered by the killing of Fyssas in the port city of Piraeus by a self-confessed party member and also includes charges over brutal attacks carried out against a group of Egyptian fishermen and on activists with the communist-affiliated PAME union, among other crimes allegedly committed during an anti-immigrant and anti-left spree by party members and supporters in 2012 and 2013.
Beset by delays, the trial – a monumental process comprising dozens of defendants, hundreds of witnesses and thousands of pages of documentation and evidence – began in April 2015.
The judges hearing the case are also expected to give a date for the verdict on Friday.
