Tsipras arranges for ministers to meet mother of slain rapper; mulls changing GD trial venue
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is reportedly taking matters into his own hands in a bid to expedite the stalled trial of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party after a desperate appeal by the mother of Pavlos Fyssas, who was murdered by one its members.
The controversial decision to hold the trial at the Korydallos maximum-security prison near Athens had, from its outset last year, drawn a storm of objections, including complaints by neighboring residents, that led to repeated delays.
Tsipras, who is reportedly mulling a change in the location of the courtroom, set up a meeting on Friday between Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos and Parliament Speaker Nikos Voutsis and the mother of Fyssas, Magda Fyssa, and other relatives.
Voutsis said Tsipras arranged the meeting because he had “heeded [Magda Fyssa’s] call,” adding that the family expressed frustration that the trial was “moving without direction.”
Voutsis insisted that the timely completion of the trial “is a crucial issue for democracy.”
Paraskevopoulos, who was also present at the meeting with the Fyssas family, explained that it would be unconstitutional for him to order a change of courtrooms and that he opted instead to call on the three-member administrative panel of the Athens Court of Appeal to evaluate the situation.
