Key Golden Dawn Nikaia cell leader says he did not order Fyssas’ murder

Yorgos Patelis, the former leader of the strong Nikaia cell of the paramilitary branch of Golden Dawn, which was responsible for the mobilisation of the neo-Nazi party's storm troopers who murdered anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, today told the judge at his trial that he had nothing to do with the murder.

"I did not put anyone up to committing murder. I am truly sad about where that young man [Fyssas] ended up. I condemn what happened. They threw me in jail like a piece of garbage. When [confessed murderer Yorgos] Roupakias called me and said he had knifed someone I told him 'go cut your throat'," Patelis told the court today.

Nikaia had Golden Dawn's most organised and violent assault battalions which have been implicated in murder, blackmail, and protection rackets.

When Fyssas was murdered in September, 2013, then public order minister Nikos Dendias had ordered broad surveillance of the group, the members of which were soon in a panic and communicated extensively by telephone.

On 28 September, 2013, ten days after Fyssas was murdered, To Vima  had reported that Patelis was being closely scrutinised by Greek Police considerably earlier for another criminal attack in Keratsini (where Fyssas was murdered).

The probe indicated that the Nikaia assault battalion was used a "joker" or a select group that participated in Golden Dawn attacks both in Attica and outside.

In that probe, incriminating evidence had been found about murders in Petralona and Keratsini , a bomb attack in Volos, and other Golden Dawn attacks in Halkida and Aitoloakarnania, To Vima had reported.

A high-level Greek police source had told the newspaper that, "Many from the Nikaia cell, exploiting their putative strength, were selling...