Pavlos Fyssas’s murderer, Giorgos Roupakias, who is serving a life sentence, as well as former MPs Elias Kasidiaris and Ioannis Lagos, will remain in prison. The court also ordered the imprisonment of Eleni Zaroulia, a former Golden Dawn MP and wife of the organisation’s leader Nikos Michaloliakos, along with three others convicted of participation in the criminal organisation.

By contrast, the court suspended the sentences of seven defendants, imposing a three-year ban on leaving the country, while four others had their sentences converted into fines. In total, 24 of the 42 convicted have already served their sentences and were released on parole.

Earlier, the same court upheld the first-instance ruling that Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation, finding all 42 neo-Nazi defendants guilty of directing or participating in a criminal organisation, as well as of the murder of Pavlos Fyssas and the attack on Egyptian fishermen.

The court granted mitigating circumstances to only five of the 27 defendants who had requested them.

Golden Dawn’s general secretary, Nikos Michaloliakos, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for directing a criminal organisation. Elias Kasidiaris, Ioannis Lagos, Christos Pappas, Giorgos Germenis and Elias Panagiotaros received the same sentence.

Former MPs convicted of participating in a criminal organisation were handed sentences ranging from five to seven years.

In total, 24 of the 42 convicted were released on parole because they have already served their sentences. Roupakias, serving a life sentence for Fyssas’s murder, and former MPs Kasidiaris and Lagos remain in prison.

The court also ordered the imprisonment of Zaroulia, who until now had remained free after being granted suspension of sentence pending appeal following the first-instance ruling. Prosecutor Kyriaki Stefanatou had recommended rejecting her request to convert the sentence into a financial penalty, and the court adopted that proposal.

Alongside Zaroulia, three other defendants whose sentences had been suspended at first instance will now go to prison:

Giorgos Dimou, sentenced to seven years for complicity in the murder of Pavlos Fyssas and membership of a criminal organisation.

Konstantinos Papadopoulos, sentenced to seven years for the attempted murder of Egyptian fishermen and membership of a criminal organisation.

Georgios Skalkos, sentenced to seven years for complicity in the murder of Fyssas and membership of a criminal organisation.

The court granted suspended sentences to seven defendants, Alexopoulos, Arvanitis, Daskalakis, Koukoutsis, Boukouras, Gregos and Tsakanikas, on condition that they do not leave the country for three years.

In four other cases, those of Michos, Eugenikos, Marias and Hatzidakis, the sentence was converted into a fine at a rate of five euros per day of detention.

Reacting to the ruling, Magda Fyssa said: ‘After 11 years, we are done. Today I return home with the thought that I will not have to find myself again among those who murdered my child and sowed hatred in society. Today I return home with my heart just as torn, but also a little more relieved.’

Commenting on the final decision of the appeal court, she added: ‘Eleven years of struggle, and I thank all those who fought this battle with us. Fortunately, there were many of them. Pavlos, we won. You brought them down, my child. Not an inch of land to the fascists. I am taking my Pavlos and leaving. Goodbye.’

Speaking to The Press Project, the lawyer in the Golden Dawn trial, Kostas Papadakis, said:

‘After 11 years, the Golden Dawn trial has gone down in history.

Today, the ruling of the First Five-Member Court of Appeal for Felonies in Athens was completed after almost four years and 230 sessions.

It is a final ruling, confirming that Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation and that all 42 defendants who remained before the second-instance court were found guilty, while the first-instance sentences for 30 of them remained unchanged, regardless of the fact that 24 have already served their sentences.

The court’s final decision rejected mitigating circumstances for 37 of the 42 defendants, while requests from only five were accepted, and even those were accepted by a majority of four to one rather than unanimously.

The crucial issue on the final day was whether some of those who received mitigating circumstances, or an additional mitigating circumstance beyond the one already granted at first instance, could avoid prison. Eleven out of 12 succeeded. The court exhausted every margin of leniency: it gave suspended sentences to seven convicted defendants and granted four others the possibility of converting their sentence. I consider it a negative aspect of the ruling that Boukouras, Koukoutsis, Gregos and Michos were among those who avoided prison, even if most of them had served prison time before, as well as the fact that one of those responsible for the attack on the Egyptian fishermen had his sentence converted. It is not possible to take part in a group attack in which people try to kill someone by smashing his head with a crowbar while he is asleep, to face two felony convictions and still avoid prison.

Zaroulia is among those going to prison for the first time, since the claim that she was merely an uninvolved wife did not stand up. The final picture of the trial is the definitive ruling that Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation and that the sentences of its leadership and most of the defendants remain unchanged. This closes a very long period of struggle inside and outside the courts with the final condemnation of the criminal violence of the assault battalions.

The struggle, of course, never ends. Most of them have already announced that they will appeal to the Supreme Court, where we will be waiting for them. We demand the reversal of the revocation of Javed Aslam’s asylum, in defence of the people who fought with immense self-sacrifice to expose Golden Dawn’s criminal nature. We defend the Observatory against any persecution by Nazi lawyers, oppose any obstacle to public access to the trial, and demand compensation for the victims of Golden Dawn and their families, while continuing the struggle against everything that gives rise to fascism and racist violence.’

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