The testimony of George Roupakias, a man accused of stabbing to death anti-Fascist activist and rapper Pavlos Fyssas, was leaked to the Greek press. Mr. Roupakias has openly stated he is a supporter of Golden Dawn, which, in turn, denies any involvement in the fatal incident.
In his pretrial testimony to prosecutors, Mr. Roupakias said that the alleged killing was due to “fear, my consternation, tragically bad luck [‘kakia stigmi’]”. He denied being part of a criminal organization and said he was and remains “convinced of this party’s [Golden Dawn] good intentions”.
He also testified that his first contact with Golden Dawn was in October 2012 and that he was drawn there because of his personal anti-memorandum stance and his love for his country. The memorandum is a catch-all phrase describing the mixture of austerity policies and reforms currently being implemented in Greece.
The leaked testimony describes events of the night of 17 and the early hours of 18 September, from the point of view of Mr. Roupakias. He relates how he was called to the scene of an altercation by members of Golden Dawn and how he allegedly stabbed to death Pavlos Fyssas.
The death caused public outrage which led to a government crackdown on Golden Dawn, an neo-fascist party which holds 18 seats in Greek parliament.