Golden Dawn

Just weeks before the leadership and around 70 members of Golden Dawn are to go on trial, the neo-Nazi party?s second-in-command, Christos Pappas, was released from jail on Sunday as the 18-month limit of pretrial detention expired.

Local officials and activists in Korydallos, southeastern Athens, voiced objections on Tuesday to plans to hold the trial of Golden Dawn MPs and members at a special court within the local prison.

Korydallos Mayor Stavros Kasimatis and municipal councilors voted against the trial being held at the jail because of security fears.

As the Council of Appeals Court Judges on Friday ordered the release of Golden Dawn party chief Nikos Michaloliakos and MP and party secretary Yiannis Lagos, the anti-racism prosecutor launched a preliminary probe into whether the far-right party was inciting hatred by distributing leaflets calling for ?illegal migrants to get out? and advertising a gathering on the issue.

The chief and a leading MP of the far-right Golden Dawn party, accused of constituting a criminal organization, were released from custody on Friday after the expiry of the 18-month period allowed by law to hold suspects awaiting trial.

The judges who are to try dozens of members of Golden Dawn, including the leadership of the neofascist party and all its current and former legislators, were named on Wednesday.

The names drawn for the trial, which is to start on April 20, include Maria Lepenioti, who will preside over the proceedings, with Maria Varka as the court?s alternate president.

Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris on Thursday faced an investigative magistrate in a case involving the secret recording of a conversation with former cabinet secretary Panayiotis Baltakos, a close aide to former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.

Kasidiaris refused any involvement in the illegal recording which was carried out in November 2013.

Socialist PASOK on Thursday accused new Parliament President Zoi Konstantopoulou of committing an unprecedented institutional misstep during a three-hour press conference she held yesterday.

Two Golden Dawn supporters on Thursday were found guilty of bodily harm by a court in Serres, northeastern Greece, in an attack against a member of anti-capitalist ANTARSYA party carried out in October 2012. Both defendants were sentenced to 12-month prison sentences, suspended for three years.

One of the defendants was former Serres Golden Dawn deputy Nikitas Siois.

In an interview with private radio Vima FM, Justice Minister Nikos Paraskevopoulos said on Wednesday that, due to understaffing problems, the trial of far right Golden Dawn deputies might be delayed.

"This delay may result in the release of the deputies, when the maximum period for holding someone without trial expires," Paraskevopoulos added.

Two public prosecutors on Tuesday suggested the conditional release of Golden Dawn chief Nikos Michaloliakos and the party?s second-in-command, Christos Pappas, after their 18-month maxim detention period ends on March 29. Both Golden Gawn officials are facing charges for organizing and leading a criminal organization.