June 27 saw the trial of eight members of the Nazi group Golden Dawn in the northern Greek city of Veria. The eight (among them, a candidate MP) were charged with raiding and trashing a cafe (on June 12) owned by the relative of a local anarchist. The eight also sued the owner of the cafe in an apparently retaliatory move – and so they all faced charges brought against one another.
The court’s decision was to convict the cafe owner to a sentence of 4 months and 20 days suspended. The only GD member convicted received a lower sentence, of 4 months. The remaining seven defendants were acquitted on the basis of an administrative glitch – purely based on the fact that when suing them, those prosecuting had neglected to pay stamp duty (!) to the court. The court also refused to accept video evidence of the Nazi attack on the cafe.
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We’re quite used to such things in the Spanish state, I don’t know if it’s the same in Greece. I wouldn’t see these cases just as a mere State mechanism (in this case, justice) playing its role and letting the nazis go so that they can go on with their attacks, but as a broader thing. Definitely, the two most active things during a totalitarian dictatorship are police forces and justice courts and in the Spain, in both cases (but especially in the second one) there was no rupture at all, and I don’t think I’d be wrong if I say that more than half of the judges who were on duty back then are still around nowadays, and that obviously influences in such cases. It sucks? Yeah, but I don’t know why we should still trust the “justice” and I don’t understand, but respect, the decision of going on a trial.
thessaloniki, june 28th – video with fascists storming a street in rotunda, and gathered behind cops, screaming threats and insults against antifascists, with the valuable assistance of the greek police as always (video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj7cSC25kVY
This is third world country politics..
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