NEWS

Golden Dawn MPs, offices to have police protection again after deadly shooting

The police guards removed from protecting Golden Dawn MPs and offices in September, in the wake of the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a member of the neo-Nazi party, are set to be reassigned to their earlier duties, sources have told Kathimerini.

Police protection was taken away from the party on September 20, just three days after Fyssas was stabbed to death in southern Athens. This was part of a raft of measures, including the halting of state funding, that targeted the far-right group, whose leader and top MPs were arrested on suspicion of running a criminal organization.

However, it appears that this protection will be brought back after two Golden Dawn members were murdered outside the party’s Neo Iraklio offices in northern Athens on Friday. A third man was seriously injured. It is expected that the party will ask in the next few days for police escorts to be brought back.

on Wednesday, Golden Dawn MP Giorgos Germenis told police that his car was followed by two men on a white motorcycle on Tuesday night and that he drove to Parliament to protect himself.

Police sources said that security at a number of potential targets for urban guerrillas is being stepped up following the Neo Iraklio shootings and this is likely to lead to Golden Dawn MPs getting their guards back.

A senior police officer also told Kathimerini on Wednesday that the two gunmen are likely to have changed their clothes after the attack. Police believe that the assailants had a change of clothes in their motorcycle’s luggage rack, which they removed before dumping the bike for fear of leaving behind traces of their DNA.

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