Murder of Pavlos Fyssas

Six years after musician and rapper Pavlos Fyssas was murdered by a self-professed member of Golden Dawn and over four years after the trial into the neo-Nazi party got under way, the time is nearing for its 18 former lawmakers to take the stand.

Wednesday was the sixth anniversary of the murder of Greek musician and rapper Pavlos Fyssas by Golden Dawn member Giorgos Roupakias in Keratsini, a western suburb of Piraeus.

Its trial as a criminal organization is entering the final phase despite the systematic foot-dragging of its cadres, who did not hesitate to insult the memory of the murder victim even during court proceedings.

Magda Fyssa, the mother of the 34-year-old rapper Pavlos Fyssas who was killed by Golden Dawn member Giorgos Roupakias in 2013, stands by a monument to her son in Keratsini, Wednesday, marking six years since his death. To her right is the father of Shehzad Luqman, a 27-year-old Pakistani laborer who was killed by GD supporters in the same year.

An anti-fascist rally marking six years since the killing of a leftist musician by a member of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn got underway in the district of Keratsini on Wednesday, headed by the victim's mother, Magda Fyssa.

The march will end at the offices of Golden Dawn in Piraeus.

Thousands of anti-fascist demonstrators were on Wednesday expected to gather in the Piraeus suburb of Keratsini to march on the offices of Golden Dawn party to commemorate the death of rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was murdered by self-professed GD member Giorgos Roupakias six years ago.
Similar rallies were planned in Thessaloniki, Volos, Patra, Trikala and Kalamatas.

Golden Dawn European Parliament Member Yiannis Lagos and former MP Nikos Michos were found guilty on Friday over a July 2013 attack on a community center in the eastern Athens suburb of Ilioupoli.

The part of the ongoing trial into Golden Dawn dealing with the September 2013 murder of a 34-year-old musician by a self-professed member of the far-right party ended on Friday with the testimony of the last defendant.

A defendant in the ongoing trial against Golden Dawn testifies in a special court at Korydallos Prison, in Piraeus, Monday.

By Lefteris Charalambopoulos

It is often different to talk about evil than it is to see it personified.

I am speaking about the court testimony of Yorgos Roupakias who showed that fascism is not a political choice.

It is a person's existential choice to become the tool of an inhuman ideology.

Showing no sign of remorse, Giorgos Roupakias, the man charged with the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in September 2013, described the incident as a "simple homicide" that has been "blown out of proportion" in his testimony Thursday before a panel of judges in a packed Athens courtroom.