Greece's ultra-right leaders, lawmakers go on trial

Leaders of Greece's ultra-right Golden Dawn (GD) party went on trial Monday inside a maximum security prison on charges of operation of the political party as a criminal organization.

Party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and senior officials are among 69 defendants in the case launched after the killing of an anti-fascist activist by a GD supporter in Piraeus in southeastern Greece in September 2013.

Police and judicial investigations have linked the suspects to illegal possession of guns, money laundering, extortions and dozens of attacks against political opponents and migrants in recent years.

The party leadership has denied any connection to the killing, calling the arrests part of a political conspiracy to break it up.

If the charges of running a criminal organization stick, Michaloliakos and his followers could each face 10 years in prison.

The trial will be held in a courtroom inside Korydallos prison, which is located about 1 km away from the district where anti-fascist musician Pavlos Fyssas was fatally stabbed by GD supporter Yorgos Roupakias in September 2013.

A few months earlier in Athens, two GD supporters killed Pakistani national Shehzat Luqman. It was Fyssas' death that triggered the judicial crackdown against the party that came to prominence in the 2012 election, capitalizing on fear of illegal immigration and anger over a long recession and high unemployment.

All of the 18 GD deputies elected in 2012 stand trial. Among them are a dozen members who were re-elected in this year's national polls, as well as two who have resigned from the party in recent months after the start of the crackdown.

The prosecution will try to prove that the GD is the successor of a neo-Nazi group formed in the mid-1980s which is functioning with a military structure and hierarchy.

Under the name "Chryssi Avgi (Golden Dawn)" since 2012, this criminal gang sought to impose its ideology through violence operating under the guise of a political party, undermining democracy, according to the argument of Appeals Court chief prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos.

Local political analysts, law experts and media refer to the trial as historic in the country as it is the first time since WWII that a parliamentary party in Greece is charged as a criminal organization, Greek news agency AMNA said.

The high profile trial was expected to last more than a year.

It began amidst a string of rallies staged by anti-fascist activists,members of trade unions, GD supporters and locals who complained about the disruption of their everyday life by increased police presence, media and demonstrators.

The verdict will also have a historic significance as it will be the first time in decades that a Greek court will essentially decide whether or not a political party is legitimate. Endi