Greece sentences far-right politicians to jail
Leaders and former politicians from what was once a major far-right political party in Greece have been sentenced to prison.
An Athens court says the members of the party, Golden Dawn, ran a criminal organization linked to hate crimes.
Golden Dawn was, at one time, Greece's third largest political party. It entered parliament for the first time in 2012 at the peak of the country's economic crisis on a fiercely anti-immigrant platform.
The court handed down 13-year jail terms to six former lawmakers, including leader Nikos Mihaloliakos (MI-HA-LOL-I-A-KOS).
Other former lawmakers and members were sentenced to between 5 to 7 years in prison.
The court also handed a life sentence on Wednesday to Golden Dawn member Yiorgos Roupakias (Roo-PA-KYAS) for the murder of an anti-fascist rapper, Pavlos Fyssas, in 2013.
It was the stabbing of Fyssas that prompted authorities to crack down on Golden Dawn amid huge protests across Greece.
The authorities launched an inquiry into whether the party was a criminal organization in parallel with the criminal investigation into the rapper's murder and into violent attacks on immigrants and left-wing activists.
Police found unlicensed weapons and Nazi flags in the homes of party members. The party accused the government of a politically-motivated conspiracy to rob it of votes.
Golden Dawn won seats in Greece's two parliamentary elections in 2015 but failed to win a single seat in last year’s vote.
