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Key defendant in Greek Golden Dawn party trial released from custody

Xinhua, March 18, 2016 Adjust font size:

Greek far-right Golden Dawn party member Yorgos Roupakias, who was charged with killing an anti-fascist rapper in 2013, was released from custody on Friday after completing the maximum 18 months of pretrial detention, the Greek authorities have announced.

Rapper and activist Pavlos Fyssas was stabbed to death by Roupakias at the district of Keratsini after an argument over a soccer match outside a cafeteria which ended in a scuffle over politics in September 2013.

Roupakias, who has confessed his stabbing of Fyssas, was the last key defendant released from custody in the case which has triggered the judicial crackdown on Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avghi).

The party's leader Nikos Michaloliakos and other MPs had been gradually released before the spring of 2015 when the trial started.

A council of appeals court judges ruled in February this year that Roupakias should also be released under strict restrictive conditions. He was placed under house arrest and police surveillance and will be allowed to leave home only to attend court sessions.

Speaking to local media, his lawyer Yorgos Roumbekas expressed concerns over his safety as tension remained.

The victim's mother Magda Fyssa has expressed her anger at Roupakias' release, as well as delays of the trial, accusing defendants' lawyers of stalling proceedings on purpose.

Numerous strikes called by the lawyers' unions over the planned pension system and taxation reform in recent months have also caused delays in the trial which, according to the latest estimates by the judicial authorities, should conclude in 2017.

Former Interim Prime Minister and current Supreme Court chief Vassiliki Thanou, together with several political leaders, top judges, antifascist organizations and ordinary citizens, criticized the Athens Bar Association and the Justice Ministry for not making enough efforts to ensure that the trial ended before pretrial detention limits expired.

Following Fyssas' death, Golden Dawn's leadership and almost the entire parliamentary group were accused of forming a criminal organization.

The party entered the Greek parliament for first time in 2012. In the latest general elections in September 2015 Chryssi Avghi won seven percent of votes and 18 seats in the assembly. Endit