Post date: Nov 30, 2013 11:52:3 PM
Golden Dawn supporters protest over the jailing of their leader and deputies, while Greek anti-fascist groups say not enough Golden Dawn party members are in jail.
ATHENS, GREECE (NOVEMBER 30, 2013) (REUTERS) - Hundreds of far-right Golden Dawn party supporters on Saturday (November 30) gathered outside Greece's parliament to mark two months since their leader and two lawmakers were jailed pending trial over charges of belonging to a criminal group and to demand their release.
At the protest supporters waved Greek flags, bore torches and listened to speeches by party members during Golden Dawn's highest-profile public initiative since the government crackdown.Golden Dawn lawmaker and press secretary Ilias Kasidiaris said that the arrest of party leaderNikolaos Mihaloliakos was made in a attempt to quell the rise of the party.
"Thieves must go to jail, that is what the people demand, and when the thieves and traitors understood that political catharsis was in the cards - because soon Golden Dawn will be the largest political party in the country, if it is not already - that's when they set up this nasty frame-up," Kasidiaris told supporters.
Golden Dawn's rally prompted anti-fascist groups to hold a separate demonstration to protest against the far-right party.
Greek police banned all marches in Athens on Saturday to prevent clashes among the rival groups, but the anti-fascist groups defied the ban and held a symbolic march near the Golden Dawn supporters.
"The fascists who murdered Pavlos Fyssas and they stabbed hundreds of immigrants and left activists and trade unionists, they should definitely be in jail," said Petros Costandinou, the president of anti-fascist movement "KEERFA".
Tensions have risen since the killing of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a Golden Dawn member in September and the fatal shootings of two party supporters this month in retaliation, responsibility for which was claimed by a group calling itself the "Militant People's Revolutionary Forces".
The September arrests of Golden Dawn's leader and two other lawmakers of Greece's third most popular party stunned a nation unused to seeing elected politicians detained since an era of military rule ended four decades ago.