Pavlos Fyssas

It has been more than six years since Pavlos Fyssas was murdered and the government of Antonis Samaras decided to open a criminal investigation into the criminal activities of Golden Dawn.

The head of Greece's extreme far-right Golden Dawn party testified in court on Wednesday for several hours as part of a long-running trial over the party's activities in which he and several former party lawmakers are accused of running a criminal organization.

More than four years since the launch of the criminal trial against Greece's neofascist Golden Dawn, party leader and founder Nikos Michaloliakos took the stand for the first time on Wednesday.
In his testimony, Michaloliakos denied charges of running a criminal organization that targeted migrants and leftists, denouncing the accusations as fake and politically-motivated.

The trial of Golden Dawn enters a key phase on Wednesday, when the neo-Nazi party's leader, Nikos Michaloliakos, takes the stand to respond to accusations of running what effectively constitutes a criminal organization.

European Parliament Member and former Golden Dawn MP Yiannis Lagos has denied accusations of running a criminal organization, claiming that the charges are politically-motivated.

The trial of Golden Dawn continued Monday with the testimony of former MP Ilias Panagiotaros, during which it became evident that the key objective among the top echelons of Greece's neo-Nazi party is to deflect responsibility for criminal acts onto members of local party organizations.

The political trial of neo-Nazi Golden Dawn continued on Friday with the testimony of former MP Nikos Michos, which contradicted claims by other prominent party members relating to developments on the night that leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas was killed by GD member Giorgos Roupakias in September 2013.

The lawyers representing former lawmaker Nikos Michos and party chief Nikos Michaloliakos in the ongoing trial against Golden Dawn clashed in court on Friday when the ex-lawmaker cast aspersions concerning the far-right party's economic management and its lax treatment of members involved in the September 2013 murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas.

Ilias Kasidiaris, a prominent former MP and spokesman of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, testified on Wednesday in the ongoing trial into GD leaders on suspicion of forming a criminal organization.
Describing the charges against him and the party leadership as "fabricated" and "politically motivated," Kasidiaris said he would not apologize for his and the party's ideology.

"I was elected as a deputy in 2012 by the Greek people. How could the Greek people possibly elect the leaders of a criminal organization?" Eleni Zaroulia, the wife of Golden Dawn chief Nikos Michaloliakos, told judges during her testimony last week.