Greece: Leader of Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party Released on Parole

Greek justice on Thursday granted parole to the leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party jailed for the murder of an anti-fascist rapper a decade ago. Nikos Michaloliakos was sentenced in 2020 to 13 and a half years in prison as the alleged leader of a criminal organization that for years targeted immigrants and political opponents.

Crimes attributed to the neo-Nazi group include the 2013 murders of an anti-fascist rapper and a Pakistani migrant, as well as brutal beatings of Egyptian fishermen and communist trade unionists.

Lamia magistrates have banned the 66-year-old mathematician and Holocaust denier from leaving the Greater Athens region and forced him to report to a police station once a month. He is also not allowed to have contact with others convicted in the case, judges said.

State agency ANA reported on Thursday that Nikos Michaloliakos has already been released from prison since 2022. He was transferred to a rehabilitation center west of Athens after a serious attack of Covid-19.

Follower of dictator Papadopoulos.

A disgraced former cadet and supporter of Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos, he had already spent time in prison in the late 1970s in connection with a series of bombings.

While in prison, he regularly wrote articles for the Golden Dawn website, calling his conviction “political persecution” and dismissing the evidence against him as unfounded. Golden Dawn, a xenophobic and anti-Semitic organization founded by Nikos Michaloliakos, was a fringe party for decades until the country’s debt crisis erupted in 2010.

The party then took advantage of public discontent with immigration and austerity policies to enter parliament for the first time in 2012, winning a total of 18 seats. At the height of its influence, it was the country’s third party in parliament. The party’s appeal process, which began in 2022, is still ongoing. Despite its fall, Golden Dawn continues to attract tens of thousands of Greek voters.

Former party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, who is also serving a prison sentence of 13 years and six months, supported the previously unknown Spartans party in national elections last year. This party received more than 240,000 votes and won 12 seats in parliament. Its leader publicly thanked Ilias Kasidiaris for “facilitating” his rise.