Fugitive Golden Dawn deputy leader apprehended
Christos Pappas, number two in the leadership of the neo-nazi Golden Dawn criminal organization, has been arrested.
On the run from the police since his conviction last October, Pappas (59) was reportedly apprehended in the Zografou district of Athens.
According to public broadcaster ERT, Pappas was allegedly arrested by anti-terrorist police in the home of a person who had sheltered him.
He has been transferred to the officers of the anti-terrorism unit in Attica General Police Directorate.
In the Golden Dawn trial, Pappas was found guilty of directing a criminal organization and was handed a 13-year prison sentence.
Pappas has not been seen since October 1, when he checked in with his local police station, as he was obliged to do.
Following the October 7 verdict deeming Golden Dawn a criminal organization, police had put the party’s leadership under surveillance. But Pappas could not be traced.
After judges ruled that the organisation’s leaders will have to see out their terms in prison, police raided Pappas’ home and those of relatives in western Attica and in Ioannina in northwestern Greece.
Suspecting that Pappas may have fled abroad, Greece police issued a European arrest warrant and alerted Interpol.