A fugitive leader of the Greek far-right Golden Dawn party has been arrested in Athens. The 59-year-old former parliamentarian Christos Pappas had been missing for nine months. He was on the run in connection with the mega-trial against dozens of Golden Dawn members last October. A 52-year-old woman who hid him has also been arrested.
Pappas is one of nearly 60 members of the far-right political movement convicted in the trial. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in absentia. He, party leader Michaloliakos and four other former parliamentarians were sentenced for running a criminal organization.
Other former politicians and members of Golden Dawn were convicted of attempted murder and possession of weapons, among other things.
Neo-Nazi
Pappas was the last party prominent who had not yet been arrested. He is known as having an excessive interest in Nazism and was seen as an important ideological leader of Golden Dawn. He was once photographed with a Nazi flag and has also been filmed teaching children the Nazi salute.
Golden Dawn was founded in the 1980s, partly by Pappas, following the example of Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP. In 2012, the party launched a fierce anti-immigration and anti-establishment program in the Greek parliament. Three years later, Golden Dawn became the country’s third party.
In October last year, the judge ruled in the mega-trial that Golden Dawn was a criminal organization. The case came to the fore after the neo-Nazi murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was highly critical of the movement. Golden Dawn also had a vigilante group that severely mistreated Egyptian fishermen and communist trade unionists.
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