A woman who harbored Golden Dawn member Christos Pappas in her home, who was arrested on Thursday night, was sentenced to 30 months in jail by a Greek court on Friday.
The 52-year-old woman claimed that Pappas, who suddenly went missing after being sentenced by a Greek court in October 2020, along with other leading members of Golden Dawn, for forming a criminal organization, was not staying at her house but had only paid her a brief visit.
Pappas was arrested at her house in the Zografou municipality of greater Athens after the convicted neo-Nazi was reported to have been on the premises by means of an anonymous phone tip.
Pappas had long railed against migrants as a member of the Golden Dawn organization, which once had a Parliamentary presence in Greece, making her arrest particularly ironic.
The court did not accept what she claimed were mitigating circumstances, giving her a suspended sentence with the exception of three months, which she has to serve in prison. The woman was released after the trial.
“Didn’t occur” to woman to report convicted felon, Neo-Nazi at her home
The Ukrainian immigrant said that she knew Pappas was being sought after the trial, and explained she had met him in 2017 through Golden Dawn events he spoke at. He had paid her a few visits and knew the house, she claimed, but she did not recognize him at first because he was wearing a face mask and a hat.
She added that it did not occur to her to call authorities when the convicted neo-Nazi entered her home.
In sentencing the woman, the prosecutor called for a verdict against her without mitigating circumstances on grounds that she had failed to provide convincing evidence.
According to the police, they received a tip by means of a phone call at 8:00 PM on Thursday by an unknown person claiming that the woman was hiding the convicted neo-Nazi. Pappas, who had been the second in command at the criminal organization, has been incarcerated at Domokos Prison.
Pappas, the former deputy leader of the infamous Neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn, who was arrested in Athens late on Thursday, was sent immediately to a maximum security prison in central Greece.
The man who had been second-in-charge of the now-defunct party, is now behind bars at Domokos, where he is expected to serve out a sentence of 13 years and three months for running a criminal organization.
Pappas, 59, was ordered to carry out his sentence at the maximum-security penitentiary after appearing before a sentencing prosecutor in Athens on Friday.
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