GD

The government on Thursday tabled a draft amendment essentially aimed to prevent the participation of a burgeoning political party in this year's general election, established by convicted and still imprisoned Ilias Kasidiaris.

Ilias Stavrou, a former Golden Dawn candidate, has filed defamaion charges against the jailed leader of Greece’s neofascist party Nikos Michaloliakos, MP Ilias Kasidiaris and the administrator of the GD website after online posts described him as “mentally ill.”

Another Golden Dawn deputy was remanded in custody Tuesday on charges of setting up and directing a criminal organization.

Magistrates Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou placed Nikos Kouzilos, who denies the charges, in pretrial detention after more than six hours of questioning on grounds that he may commit new crimes.

People wait at a bus stop beneath a campaign poster for New Democracy in central Athens on Wednesday.

With just a few days left before the crucial double elections on Sunday, party leaders intensified their campaigning on Wednesday with their position on the threat posed by neofacist Golden Dawn a key focus of much of the rhetoric.

An Athens prosecutor on Thursday launched an investigation into a video posted on the Internet on Wednesday showing former cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos appearing to accuse Prime Minister Antonis Samaras of trying to influence a judicial probe into the neofascist Golden Dawn.