Greek police have arrested Nikos Michaloliakos, the leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party that is under fire in the killing of an anti-fascist for which one of its members was charged, was arrested on the morning of Sept. 28 along with his party spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, in a roundup of party members and leaders, authorities said.
“The Secretary General and one lawmaker of the Golden Dawn Party were arrested a short while ago after arrest warrants were issued,” police said in a statement. It was reported that more than 30 arrest warrants had been issued and police were scouring the country looking for other suspects.
Kasidiaris, charged with another crime, has had his immunity from prosecution for all crimes stripped by the Parliament but Michaloliakos still enjoys that protection unless the body also moves to remove it from him and other Golden Dawn MP’s said to be suspects.
Police, who had been criticized for having ties to the party, moved swiftly to round up what authorities said was a ring of people tied to the Fyssas killing. That came after prosecutors and investigators were frantically gathering evidence, including through the use of wiretaps authorized by the courts and as the suspects were said to have been openly boasting about their activities.
After moving to fire the heads of five elite police units who failed to act in the wake of the murder and investigating whether there are military officers training Golden Dawn units, the head of the counter-espionage section at the National Intelligence Service (EYP), Dimos Kouzilos, was replaced. Unconfirmed reports said that someone close to the official, possibly a relative, had links to Golden Dawn.
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