Post date: Sep 29, 2013 7:27:52 PM
Far-right Golden Dawn party lawmaker is officially charged with participating in a criminal organization.
ATHENS, GREECE (SEPTEMBER 29, 2013) (REUTERS) - One more lawmaker from Golden Dawn party appeared on Sunday (September 29) before an investigating magistrate to hear the official charges leveled against the far-right group.
Christos Papas, a senior member of the party and deputy party leader, had earlier turned himself in at the Athens police headquarters after the top court ordered his arrest.The handcuffed detainee was taken under high security to the prosecutor's office and was charged officially on evidence linking the party with a string of attacks, including the stabbing of the rapper on September 17 and the killing of an immigrant earlier this year, according to court officials.
"Ideas cannot be imprisoned," shouted Pappas to journalists as masked police from the anti-terrorism squad led him from the prosecutor's office to the investigating magistrate.
The arrest of party leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, four other lawmakers and 13 party members on Saturday (September 28) was the biggest mass detention of lawmakers since the end of Greece's military dictatorship in 1974.
The leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party will appear in court on Wednesday, while four more of its lawmakers will appear before an investigation magistrate on Tuesday to enter pleas on charges of belonging to a criminal organization after being arrested following the killing of an anti-fascist rapper.
The fatal stabbing of 34-year-old Pavlos Fissas on September 17 stirred outrage and protests across Greece and led to an investigation into the party for evidence linking it to the attack and dozens more criminal offenses. The party denies any links to the killing.
Ιt has also prompted a shake-up of Greek police in light of evidence obtained by investigators indicating that Golden Dawn cells were operating within the force. Two police officers were arrested on Saturday (September 28) in connection with the inquiry and several senior officers have been suspended or replaced.
Two days after the killing, the government passed onto the highest civilian court a file containing 32 cases of suspected crimes linked to members of Golden Dawn, including four knife attacks on immigrants, one of which was fatal.