Leaders of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn, the country's third most popular party in parliament during the debt crisis, were found guilty of running a criminal group, a Greek appeals court has ruled.
The killing of 34-year old leftist rapper Pavlos Fyssas by a party supporter in 2013 prompted a crackdown against the party that led prosecutors to arrest and investigate Golden Dawn leaders and MPs over a series of crimes.
Earlier, the court found Golden Dawn sympathiser Yiorgos Roupakias guilty of killing Fyssas.
Thousands of people gathered outside the appeals court in Athens ahead of the verdict. Greek police fired tear gas into the crowds.
Reading out the verdict in a trial that lasted over five years, presiding judge Maria Lepenioti said Golden Dawn founder and leader Nikos Michaloliakos and other senior members were guilty of running a criminal organisation.
None of the party's senior members were present in court.
Michaloliakos and fellow senior members face jail sentences from five to 15 years.
The sentences were to be announced in separate hearings.
Yesterday, members of the main opposition leftist Syriza party held up letters in parliament that spelled "they are not innocent".
There was uproar last year when chief prosecutor Adamantia Economou called for the acquittal of the party leaders on the basis that the existence of a criminal organisation had not been proven.
In total, 68 members of the party have been on trial, including Michaloliakos and more than a dozen other former MPs like him who were elected in 2012 as the openly xenophobic group capitalised on discontent over joblessness and migration.
As well as delivering a verdict in the murder trial for Fyssas and the trial of senior leaders of Golden Dawn, the court was also to hand down judgments for two other assault cases allegedly involving Golden Dawn members.
An Egyptian fisherman was left with broken teeth and head injuries after being beaten with clubs and metal bars in June 2012 as he slept.
Just over a year later, Communists putting up posters were attacked with nail-studded clubs.
Golden Dawn was at its political peak at the time of Fyssas's murder, having won 18 seats in the 300-seat parliament in 2012 amid anger over a financial crisis in Greece that discredited mainstream political parties.
Three years later, it also sent three deputies to the European parliament in another strong showing.
But the investigation took its toll, causing a number of senior members to defect. In the last election in 2019, the party failed to win a single seat.
