Ioanna Mandrou characterized the Court of Appeal’s decision regarding Golden Dawn as historic, speaking on “Parapolitika 90.1” with Niki Lyberaki. According to the judicial reporter, there are two reasons that make it historic: First, because it definitively characterizes it as a criminal organization, and second, for the sentences it imposed, confirming the first instance. Specifically, as Ioanna Mandrou said, the criminal organization Golden Dawn “applied Nazi-type practices and wore a political cloak while committing crimes against immigrants and political opponents.
Read: Eleni Zaroulia: The former Golden Dawn MP will spend the night at Peuki Police Station (Video)
This is very serious because it is the only decision at European level that has convicted a political formation as a criminal organization with Nazi ideology.” She clarified, saying: “I will clarify here because I heard and saw many comments. These specific people were not convicted for their ideology, they were convicted for the crimes, the heinous ones they committed under the cloak of a political formation that had Nazi ideology. Thoughts and opinions are not being tried here, actions are being tried here. But this Nazi ideology resulted in criminal actions. This decision is very serious.”
As Ioanna Mandrou said, “the sentences continued as in the first instance court. That is, the entire hard political core of Golden Dawn, those who had been elected to Parliament, Michaloliakos, Kasidiaris, Lagos, all of them were convicted and now for the second time to 13 years imprisonment for directing and joining the criminal organization. This criminal organization committed crimes. Among which crimes, I should note the main and worst one, was the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, they had committed attacks on Egyptian fishermen and various collective hangouts and on PAME, which was not tried in second instance, but we remember that a PAME organization in Koukaki had also received a major attack at the source on Syngrou Avenue, they had a long and prolonged criminal activity. This is the hard core. Other MPs, not to get into names and details, were sentenced to smaller penalties from 5 to 7 years.”
Ioanna Mandrou: Michaloliakos remains out of prison as he faces real and serious health problems since the coronavirus era
Ioanna Mandrou reminded that Ilias Kasidiaris remains imprisoned, serving his sentence. Ioannis Lagos is also in prison. However, both “are close to serving their sentences and will be released soon.” Regarding Nikos Michaloliakos, the Golden Dawn leader is outside prison with restrictive conditions, “because he faces real and serious health problems since the coronavirus era.”
And reaching today’s development with Eleni Zaroulia, Ioanna Mandrou clarifies that “there was a possibility of conversion, but the second instance court did not give this conversion. In the court of appeal there cannot be a suspension, she had received a suspension in the first instance, that is, they had awarded her this sentence, the 5 years, and they had told her ‘you will be out until the appeal takes place.’ When the appeal happens, however, there is no other degree, it is a final decision, the court did not convert her sentence, so we have what we are experiencing today, that is, today’s development, where the wife of Nikos Michaloliakos, to remind what she is, who Eleni Zaroulia is, was also an MP, is led to prison to serve the sentence as provided by law. You might ask me how much she will serve. I am not ready at this moment to say how much 2-5 or 3-5, roughly I will say that because she had not sat inside at all, so I think it will be 3 years.”
