Far-right MPs cleared of charges in Greek court over racist violence case.

Three former MPs from Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party have been acquitted of inciting racial violence, according to a court ruling in Athens.

The decision to acquit former MPs Nikos Mikalolakos, Ilias Kasidiaris and Panagiotis Iliopoulos was taken with the prosecutor’s suggestion that even if controversial phrases such as “Turkish agents” and “Turkish conscience” were said to Turkish Muslim MPs, they did not fall under racism. Speech because it does not contain phrases that incite violence, as pointed out to the daily Pontic.

At trial, Kasidiaris said he never referred to ethnicity or national consciousness while Iliopoulos and Michalokos said they were not even present at the parliamentary committee meeting at which such words were said.

The decision was welcomed by sympathizers of the deputies who watched the trial in court.

Golden Dawn was formed in 1980 but was not registered as a political party until 1993.

Its political breakthrough came in the 2012 elections when it received 6.92% of the vote, making it the fifth largest political group in Greece and enabling it to enter Parliament for the first time.

She won three seats in the European Parliament after winning 9.4% of the vote in the 2014 European elections.

His downfall began in 2019 when he was unable to win any seats, leaving him out of Parliament.

In 2020, it was banned by the Supreme Court of Greece as a “criminal organization”.