Skip to main content

Greece crackdown: Golden Dawn leader Michaloliakos charged


The leader of the far-right Golden Dawn party, Nikolaos Michaloliakos, has been formally charged with belonging to a criminal organisation.
Four more Golden Dawn MPs, a party leader in an Athens suburb and 15 other people face the same charges.
They were arrested on Saturday amid anger over the murder on 18 September of anti-racist musician, Pavlos Fyssas.
A man held for the stabbing told police he was a Golden Dawn supporter, though the party strongly denies any link.
The MPs arrested on Saturday were party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, Ilias Panayiotaros, Nikos Michos and Ioannis Lagos. It is the first time since 1974 that a party leader and MPs have been arrested.
It was an extraordinary moment to see the five MPs being escorted in handcuffs by armed police in balaclavas, BBC Athens correspondent Mark Lowen reports.
They will now return to police headquarters and are likely to be refused bail before their trial, our correspondent says.
Mr Panayiotaros told reporters before giving himself up: "Shame on them, the people will lift Golden Dawn higher."
A number of other warrants are believed to have been issued. The arrests were made by the anti-terrorism unit.
Police said guns and ammunition had been found at Mr Michaloliakos's home and that he did not have a licence for the weapons.
Golden Dawn issued a rallying call via a text message, saying: "We call upon everyone to support our moral and just struggle against the corrupt system!"
Its call for members to gather outside the police headquarters in Athens was answered by some 200 supporters who chanted slogans and waved Greek flags.
Makis Voridis, a politician with the governing New Democracy Party, told the BBC's Newshour that the police had made the right decision on the arrests.
He said: "This is an alleged party. It is actually, as the justice system has said, a criminal organisation... members of a legal, political, parliamentary party, do not participate in homicides."

Popular posts from this blog

Wind, rain, sea pound eastern India as Cyclone Phailin nears

BHUBANESWAR: Strong winds and heavy rains pounded India's eastern coastline on Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of people took shelter from a massive, powerful cyclone expected to reach land in a few hours. The skies were dark - almost black - at midmorning in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha and about 60 miles (about 100 kilometres) from the coast. Roaring winds made palm trees sway wildly, and to the south, seawater was pushing inland. By Friday evening, some six lakh people had been moved to higher ground or shelters in Odisha, which is expected to bear the brunt of the cyclone, said Surya Narayan Patro, the state's top disaster management official. About 12 hours before Cyclone Phailin's landfall, meteorologists held out hope that the storm might hit while in a temporary weakened state, but no matter what it will be large and deadly. Ryan Maue, a meteorologist at Weather Bell, a private US weather firm, said even in the best-case scenario there will be a st...

Cricket Future Tours Program Till 2020

Month Tournament Details Apr - May 2015 IPL 2015   Matches: 76 T20  Venue:   India June 2015 India tour of Bangladesh 2015   Matches: 2 Test and 3 ODI  Venue:   Bangladesh August 2015 Pakistan tour of India 2015   Matches: Unknown  Venue:   India September 2015 Champions League T20 2015   Matches: 23 T20  Venue:   N/A Oct - Dec 2015 South Africa tour of India 2015   Matches: 3 Test, 7 ODI and 2 T20  Venue:   India Dec 2015 - Jan 2016 Sri Lanka tour of India 2015-16   Matches: 3 Test  Venue:   India Jan - Feb 2016 Australia tour of India 2016   Matches: 7 ODI and 2 T20  Venue:   India Feb - Mar 2016 India tour of West Indies 2016   Matches: 3 Test, 5 ODI and 1 T20  Venue:   West Indies Mar - Apr 2016 T20 World Cup 2016   Matches: 27 T20  Venue:   India Apr - Jun 2016 IPL 2016   Matches: 76 T20  Venue:   India May 2016 West Indi...

Born poor, now self-made billionaires - Ed Liddy

Ed Liddy, former chief executive officer of American International Group (AIG ) had to face lot of hardships before he rose to great heights. Ed Liddy's father died when he was just 12 years old. According to a BusinessWeek report, he had a poverty-stricken childhood. Liddy graduated from Catholic University of America in 1968 and received a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University in 1972. He worked with Ford Motor before joining G D Searle & Co in 1981. The 63-year old Liddy earned about $130 million during his eight-year tenure at Allstate. In the wake of the financial crisis, Ed Liddy came to rescue the ailing AIG, worked for a salary of $1. But the act turned disastrous when the company handed out employee bonuses totally $165 million after it had accepted $170 billion in government bailout funds. This forced him to quit AIG.