The ongoing investigation into Golden Dawn after the murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas on the 17th of September by Golden Dawn member and enforcer Giorgos Roupakias has revealed a wealth of shocking details regarding the ultra nationalist’s operations and criminal activities.
According to a 37-year-old witness who saw the events unfold from his balcony, Fyssas was being beaten by three people in black shirts prior to the knife attack. The three assailants backed down when a police officer asked them to leave or he would detain them. The witness also reported that Fyssas arrived in a silver Nissan at the same time and approached Fyssas with a steady pace and calm facial expression, while a tall man with short hair ran off from the other side of the car.
The Mayor of Athens Giorgos Kaminis reported that municipal councilors had been informed him of Golden Dawn’s organized violent operations, mostly against immigrants, while explaining that he was “sorry for not paying the necessary attention”.
Social worker and member of Doctors of the World Anastasios Yfantis reported that a sharp rise in racially-motivated attacks had been documented and that in some of these attacks, the Golden Dawn members would also use dogs. Mr. Yfantis explained that the Golden Dawn members would stop immigrants in the street and assault them under the pretext of immigration checks. The attacks usually started off with verbal abuse and would quickly escalate to physical violence including broken bottles, baseball bats, knives, brass knuckles, tazers and clubs.
The Mayor of Corinth Alexandros Pnevmatikos stated that groups of at least 20 Golden Dawn members had repeatedly “marched” through the city chanting slogans and assaulting immigrants. In one of these violent “marches”, the immigrants jumped into the sea to save themselves.
Mr. Pnevmatikos had also been assaulted by Golden Dawn’s local MP Efstathios Boukouras during the efforts to extinguish a forest fire on the 27th of July 2012. The Mayor claimed that Boukouras approached him and threatened to kill him, before knocking him over and breaking his glasses. Earlier in the month the Golden Dawn MP had threatened the mayor at a celebration of the historic battle of Dervenakia.
The Mayor of Nemea Evangelos Andrianakos also reported that he had received a threatening phone call from Boukouras on the night the Golden Dawn was elected and that Golden Dawn members and supporters had assaulted Romanian workers who had requested their wages from their Greek employers.
Filmmaker Kostas Georgousis testified about his experiences with Golden Dawn as part of a documentary he was filming. Mr. Georgousis explained that the Golden Dawn members had explicitly consented to appearing in the documentary, where they are shown to assault immigrants.
The Police Director of Heraklion, Crete Tilemachos Pantagakis who was charged with safeguarding a Golden Dawn rally in Crete from a rival group of demonstrators, reported that Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris angrily demanded that the demonstrators be expelled from the area, otherwise “there will be dead people by the sunset”. The police officer took the threat seriously and got the impression the MP was leading the Golden Dawn members.
Included in the case is a deposition by SYRIZA MP Petros Tatsopoulos, who claimed that Golden Dawn is “a Nazi organization that is taking advantage of the Supreme Court’s mistake to allow them to run for Parliament”, while noting that the “military formations, Nazi ceremonies at Thermopylae with torches aligned in the shape of a meander etc are clearly military preparations. They are not preparing for gymnastics or the Mister Universe contest”.
