The parliamentary immunity of four Golden Dawn MPs – Antonis Gregos, Polyvios Zisimopoulos, Artemis Mattheopoulos and Kostas Barbaroussis – was lifted today after a vote in Parliament. The members of the neo-Nazi party face charges of joining and participating in a criminal organization.

The neo-Nazi party’s spokesman and MP Ilias Kasidiaris appeared in Parliament with a letter of an unnamed “Greek judge”, who alleges that there were “obvious interventions” in the course of Justice. The MP referred to the Baltakos scandal as confirmation of his allegations and argued that his party was being persecuted on political grounds.

Of the four MP whose immunity was lifted, Gregos remarked that “ideas cannot be imprisoned”, whiled Zisimopoulos commented that “decisions have already been made”, claiming he had no participation in any criminal acts. Mattheopoulos on the other hand noted that the “procedure is pointless and silly”, while Barbarousis claimed to not care about the outcome of the vote.

A total of 237 MPs participated in the vote, with 213 MPs voting in favor of the immunity, 16 MPs voted against the motion and 8 MPs voted “present”.