Golden Dawn leader to be released from jail

Nikos Michaloliakos, the former leader of the now-defunct neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn who was serving a multi-year prison sentence for running a criminal organization will be released from jail, a court ruled on Thursday.

The Judicial Council of Misdemeanors of Lamia ruled that the former leader of Golden Dawn fulfils the formal requirements for a conditional early release after serving three fifths of his 13-year sentence.

At the hearing, the public prosecutor argued against Michaloliakos’ release, saying that although he meets the legal requirements, he has shown no remorse for his actions or moral improvement, citing his extensive writings where Michaloliakos claims he is imprisoned because of his political beliefs. The Council, however, deemed that the articles glorifying the neo-Nazi ideology do not constitute illegal actions.

He is banned from leaving Attica, is required to report to his local police station (in Pefki) once a month, and is not allowed to meet with any of the defendants in the Golden Dawn crime case.

Michaloliakos was convicted in October 2020 to 13 years in prison for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes in a landmark ruling, following a five-year trial of dozens of top officials, members and supporters of Golden Dawn, an organization founded as a neo-Nazi group in the 1980s that rose to become Greece’s third-largest political during a major financial crisis in the previous decade.

Eleven other former parliament members were jailed for between five and seven years for membership of a criminal organization, while a party associate was given a life sentence for the murder of Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas in a 2013 attack that triggered the crackdown against the party.