Pavlos Fyssas

A rally commemorating Pavlos Fyssas, the 34-year-old rapper killed by a self-professed member of Golden Dawn five years ago, got under way in Keratsini, near Piraeus, on Tuesday evening.

Several people left flowers at his monument with protesters asking for the ongoing trial on his death to be completed with the conviction of Giorgos Roupakias, the man who stabbed him.

Police were on Tuesday bracing for rallies commemorating Pavlos Fyssas, the 34-year-old rapper killed by a self-professed member of Golden Dawn five years ago in Keratsini, near Piraeus.

Rallies are planned for all over the country including one due to start at 5.30 p.m. at the spot of Fyssas's slaying and to culminate at the offices of Golden Dawn in Piraeus.

A few days ago, a photograph was published on some social media sites of Magda Fyssa sitting in a court room. She is the mother of the 34-year-old rapper Pavlos Fyssas who was killed by a member of the neofascist Golden Dawn party on September 18, 2013 in the western Athens district of Keratsini.

Police chiefs are bracing for upheaval over the next few days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the killing of the 34-year-old rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a member of the neofascist Golden Dawn party. 

Counterterrorism officers launched an operation in the early hours of Tuesday to arrest suspected members of a far-right extremist group calling itself Combat 18 Hellas.

House raids in various parts of Atttica and in one more location that has not been disclosed have so far led to six people being remanded for questioning in relation to several bomb and arson attacks.

Five people were injured on Sunday evening when a group of men believed to be far-right supporters smashed their way into a leftist community center in the port city of Piraeus.

The attackers were wielding tire irons and lit smoke bombs when the barged into the premises shortly after 7 p.m., attacking the people who were gathered there at the time and smashing windows and furniture.

Counterterrorism officers are investigating the activities of five suspected neo-Nazis arrested on Thursday in connection with the bombing of a far-left squat in Piraeus last August. 

Raids on the homes of the suspects, all aged 18 to 26, turned up knives and other weapons as well as flags bearing the Nazi swastika. 

A historian who was viciously attacked by a gang of Golden Dawn members in the summer of 2008 testified on Friday at the ongoing trial on the criminal activities of the far-right party, telling judges that there were a lot of similarities between that assault and others of which the party stands accused.

It's been four years since the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in Keratsini. The Golden Dawn trial, which has been marred by vulgar attacks inside the courtroom against Fyssas's mother by defendants and their followers, has gone on for two-and-a-half years now.

Police detained seven people late on Monday following riots in Drapetsona that followed a rally organized to mark for years since the murder of leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a member of the neonazi party Golden Dawn.

The seven protesters were subsequently arrested without charge.