Golden Dawn defendants skip trial, prompting judge's ire

The absence of 11 of the 18 defendants who are scheduled to testify in connection with the September 2013 murder of Pavlos Fyssas in the ongoing trial against the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party prompted the ire of the bench's president on Friday. "The defendants have an obligation to be here. The court has ways of bringing them in," judge Maria Lepeniotou warned.

Friday's proceedings focused on the testimony of Ioannis Aggos, a member of the party's chapter in the Piraeus suburb of Nikaia, who told the court the previous day that he had alerted a party official to Fyssas' presence at a cafe-bar in nearby Keratsini, a call that prosecutors say set off the string of events leading up to the musician's murder.

On Thursday, 13 of the defendants had attended the proceedings, including Giorgos Roupakias, who has confessed to stabbing the 34-year-old musician to death. His...

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