NEWS

Golden Dawn’s alleged Piraeus chief remanded in pretrial custody

The two special prosecutors who have been assigned the investigation into the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn and charges that it operates as a criminal organization, on Friday ordered that a suspect who is believed to head the party’s cell in Piraeus be remanded in custody pending trial.

Nikos Apostolou was taken into custody on the strength of allegedly incriminating telephone calls in the early hours of September 18, when a member of Golden Dawn stabbed to death 34-year-old rapper Pavlos Fyssas in the Piraeus suburb of Keratsini.

Counterterrorism officers and police investigating the murder have been tracing telephone calls made on that night between the assailant, who has confessed to the stabbing, and higher-ranking members of Golden Dawn, which is believed to operate according to a strict hierarchy.

The murder of Fyssas prompted a crackdown on the far-right party – which has been linked to a number of violent assaults, mainly on migrants – that has led to the arrest of its leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, and other party cadres.

Three Golden Dawn MPs – Giorgos Germenis, Panagiotis Iliopoulos and Stathis Boukouras – are expected to face prosecutors Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou on Monday to respond to charges of active participation in a criminal organization.

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