Greek court upholds criminal organisation verdict on neo-Nazi Golden Dawn

An appeal court in Athens has upheld the 2020 convictions of 42 defendants linked to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.

Founder Nikos Mihaloliakos and six other leading Golden Dawn officials were found guilty of "belonging to and running a criminal organisation" under the guise of a political party.

Another 24 defendants, who included 11 former MPs, were found guilty of joining the organisation.

Further convictions were upheld for the 2013 murder of left-wing musician and activist Pavlos Fyssas and the savage beating of a group of Egyptian fishermen in Athens.

The defendants face sentences of up to 15 years in prison, although only two of the 42 involved in the appeal were in court to hear the judges deliver their verdict.

A crowd of more than 200 gathered outside the tribunal and welcomed the guilty verdicts.

The appeals trial started in 2022 and last December prosecutor Kyriaki Stefanatou called on the court to uphold the original guilty verdicts.

Golden Dawn, she said, was a "genuine child of Nazi ideology and this is the motivation for their actions."

"Nazi ideology is the motivation for the criminal action that is carried out against political dissidents and immigrants," Stefanatou added.

Golden Dawn entered the Greek parliament in 2012 at the height of Greece's economic crisis, when it came third in the election with 18 MPs elected.

It took advantage of growing public discontent fuelled by corruption and mismanagement by the established political parties, as well as drastic cuts to spending enforced by international lenders and a rise in immigration to the EU.

In 2013, MP Ilias Panagiotaros told the BBC that Greek society was "ready... [for] a new type of civil war. On one side will be nationalists like us, and Greeks who want our country to be as it used to be. On the other will be illegal immigrants and anarchists."

Golden Dawn's popularity soon waned after Fyssas' murder, for which some 22 members were arrested, including six MPs and party leader Nikos Mihaloliakos.

Mihaloliakos has said his party accepted "political responsibility" for the murder, but rejected "criminal responsibility".

A Golden Dawn supporter, Giorgos Roupakias, admitted killing Fyssas and is one of the few party members currently in jail. His murder conviction was upheld by the judges who also found him guilty of membership of a criminal organisation.

Mihaloliakos, a Holocaust denier, was released from prison on health grounds in September 2025, less than halfway into his 13-year sentence. Lawyers for the Fyssas family called the ruling "scandalous".

Golden Dawn have failed to get any MPs elected to parliament since 2019.

A far-right party called the Spartans has since emerged.

Former Golden Dawn party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, now in custody, has endorsed the Spartans, who now have two seats in the Greek parliament.