Greek neo-Nazi party: Vice of the “Golden Dawn” in custody

He went underground in October 2020: The vice-head of the right-wing extremist Greek party “Golden Dawn”, Pappas, has been arrested and taken to a maximum security prison.

10:00 am at the Court of Appeal in Athens. The rush of the Greek media is great, Christos Pappas is expected to arrive here at any moment. He is considered number two of the right-wing extremist and racist party “Golden Dawn”. The previous evening, the Greek police reported his arrest.

Pappas went into hiding on October 1, 2020 – just days before a court sentenced him and six other Golden Dawn MPs to 13 years in prison. In advance, the police had always emphasized that there was no risk of escape, as the accused were being monitored at every turn.

After this mishap, the minister for civil protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, was relieved: “The arrest of the fugitive deputy leader of the ‘Golden Dawn’ was the last open end of this criminal organization and is the result of methodical and systematic investigations.”

Responsible for murders and robberies

The trial against Pappas and the other members of the “Golden Dawn” was probably one of the most important since the end of the Greek military dictatorship in 1974: the trial lasted a good five years and more than 130 witnesses were heard.

There was a wealth of crimes committed by supporters of the “Golden Dawn”: for example, the brutal attack on four sleeping Egyptians in their apartment in the Athens port district of Piraeus, the murder of a Pakistani migrant and the fatal one Knife attack on left rapper Pavlos Fyssas.

In the end, the court classified the party as a criminal organization and seven former MPs were found guilty of leading the organization.

Among them Christos Pappas. After his arrest in 2013, the police found dozens of Nazi relics and several videos when they searched his apartment. One shows a little boy in a traditional Greek robe with a swastika flag in hand and a swastika armband. It is unclear whether this is his son.

Ardent Hitler admirer

Christos Pappas calls out “Heil Hitler” and the boy then raises his outstretched right arm in the Hitler salute. “Well done my boy!” praises Pappas. Another video shows a child teaching the Nazi salute to another. The ardent Hitler admirer Pappas is considered to be the ideological backbone of the “Golden Dawn”.

In the course of the severe economic and financial crisis, the party appeared on the national scene in 2012 and entered the Greek parliament for the first time. Three years later it even temporarily became the third strongest force.

In the 2019 election, however, it failed due to the three percent clause and has not been represented in the Greek parliament since then.

Short court date

At the courthouse, the journalists are still waiting for Pappas to arrive. It is now noon. Then everything happens very quickly: A silver-colored SUV drives up and disappears into the underground car park. Pappas is sitting in the back seat, next to him are policemen in balaclavas. Less than a quarter of an hour later, Pappas is driven away again.

According to Pappa’s lawyer Periklis Stavrianakis, the prosecutor ordered the execution of the sentence in the Domokos maximum security prison in central Greece. Most of the other convicted members of the Golden Dawn are also serving their sentences there.