NEWS

Pavlos Fyssas murder trial expected to start before the end of the year

The trial over the September 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a self-proclaimed member of Golden Dawn, an act that sparked a large-scale investigation into the alleged criminal activities of the neo-Nazi party, is expected to start before the end of the year, Kathimerini has learned.

Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos, who has supervised the probe into the activities of Golden Dawn’s MPs and other high-ranking party officials, is said to be preparing his recommendations for a council of judges and to request a start to the trial by end-2014.

The investigation that followed the lethal stabbing of Fyssas in the early hours of September 18, 2013, in Keratsini, a suburb of Piraeus, is the biggest involving political officials to be conducted in Greece since the aftermath of World War II.

Giorgos Roupakias, a self-proclaimed member of the ultranationalist party, has allegedly confessed to the crime, with evidence suggesting that he was following orders from the higher echelons of Golden Dawn.

A probe sparked by the 2013 killing into the party’s activities and led by investigating magistrates Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou under the supervision of Dogiakos, has resulted in criminal charges being brought against all of Golden Dawn’s Parliamentary deputies as well as several high-ranking officials of the party, including the head of the branch of Golden Dawn in Nikaia, near Keratsini, Giorgos Patelis.

A total of 78 suspects have been charged over the findings of the probe, which include thousands of pages of evidence, hundreds of videos and voice recordings and multiple testimonies suggesting that Golden Dawn operates as a criminal organization with a strict hierarchical structure.

The central premise of the case is that the murder of 34-year-old Fyssas was ordered from within the party ranks and was politically motivated as the young musician was known for his anti-fascist activism.

Nine of the original Golden Dawn 18 MPs (two defected earlier this year) are currently in pretrial custody, including party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and his right-hand man Christos Pappas. The other nine have been granted conditional release.

Meanwhile, marking the anniversary of Fyssas’s murder anti-fascist rallies are being organized on September 18 in Keratsini and in other parts of the country. There will also be a concert held in Syntagma Square on September 19 to commemorate his death.

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