By Kerin Hope in Athens, Financial Times
The spokesman for Greece’s neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was jailed on Thursday to await trial on charges of possessing weapons and membership of a criminal organisation as a 10-month probe of the party’s 18 members of parliament neared completion.
Ilias Kasidiaris, who has, in effect, led the party since its founder was jailed last October on similar charges, denied wrongdoing.
Mr Kasidiaris showed journalists outside the Athens appeal court what he said were licences for two hunting rifles found by police at his home.
“These aren’t weapons of war . . . The case against me is purely political,” he said.
Mr Kasidiaris’ jailing represents a legal blow to a party that has already seen eight of its MPs put behind bars in recent months. Others – including Eleni Zaroulia, the wife of the party’s founder and leader Nikos Mihaliolakos – have been placed under house arrest, although they are allowed to attend parliament.
All were stripped of their immunity from prosecution by parliament this year to face charges of belonging to a criminal gang. No trial date has been set.
Golden Dawn has steadily gained ground with voters hit hardest by Greece’s economic crisis, winning 9.4 per cent at the European parliament elections in May – up from 6.9 per cent at a general election in mid-2012 when it entered the Greek parliament for the first time.
Recent opinion polls suggest its popularity has not been affected by its legal troubles. It consistently scores 10 per cent in opinion polls, putting it behind the far-left opposition Syriza and the governing centre-right New Democracy party
Two appeal court judges launched a probe of Golden Dawn following the fatal stabbing last September of a Greek anti-fascist rap artist by a party supporter who admitted to the attack.
Golden Dawn members have been accused of dozens of racist attacks against immigrants, including beatings and stabbings. The party advocates that all immigrants should be deported on the grounds there are not enough jobs for Greek citizens.
Mr Kasidiaris, a former army commando who shot to prominence after slapping a communist parliamentary candidate during a live television debate, has denied that party members were involved in violence. He claims Golden Dawn is a nationalist – not a neo-Nazi – party committed to tackling corruption in public life.
