Golden Dawn (Greece) - Allegations of Connections To The Greek Police

Allegations of Connections To The Greek Police

In a 1998 interview with the newspaper Eleftherotypia, Georgios Romaios (the then Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) Minister for Public Order) alleged the existence of "fascist elements in the Greek police", and vowed to suppress them. In a TV interview that same year, Romaios again claimed that there was a pro-fascist group within the police force although he said it was not organized, and was only involved in isolated incidents. The same year, Eleftherotypia published a lengthy article called "The lower limbs of the police", which outlined connections between the police and neo-fascism. Dimitris Reppas, the PASOK government spokesman, strongly denied such connections. However, the article quoted a speech by PASOK Member of Parliament Paraskevas Paraskevopoulos about a riot caused by right wing extremists, in which he said:

"In Thessaloniki it is widely discussed that far-right organisations are active in the security forces. Members of such organisations were the planners and chief executioners of the riot and nobody was arrested. A Special Forces officer, speaking at a briefing of Special Forces policemen that were to be on duty that day, told the policemen not to arrest anyone because the rioters were not enemies and threatened that should this be overlooked there would be penalties."

Before the surrender of Androutsopoulos, an article by the newspaper Ta Nea claimed that the Golden Dawn had close relationships with some parts of the Greek police force. In relation to the Periandros case, the article quoted an unidentified police officer who said that "half the force wanted Periandros arrested and the other half didn't". The article claimed that there was a confidential internal police investigation which concluded that:

1. Golden Dawn had very good relations and contacts with officers of the force, on and off duty, as well as with rank and file police.
2. The police provided the group with batons and radio communications equipment during mass demonstrations, mainly during celebrations of the Athens Polytechnic uprising and during rallies by left-wing and anarchist groups, in order to provoke riots.
3. Periandros and the group's connections with the force largely delayed his arrest.
4. Periandros's brother, also a member of Golden Dawn, was a security escort of an unnamed New Democracy MP.
5. Many Golden Dawn members were illegally carrying an assortment of weapons.

The newspaper published a photograph of a typewritten paragraph with no identifiable insignia as evidence of the secret investigation. In the article, the Minister for Public Order, Michalis Chrysochoidis, responded that he did not recollect such a probe. Chrysochoidis also denied accusations that far right connections within the police force delayed the arrest of Periandros. He said that leftist groups, including the ultra-left anti-state resistance group 17 November, responsible for several murders, had similarly evaded the police for decades. In both cases, he attributed the failures to "stupidity and incompetence" on behalf of the force.

Golden Dawn stated that rumours about the organisation having connections to the Greek police and the government are untrue, and that the police had intervened in Golden Dawn's rallies and had arrested members of the Party several times while the New Democracy party was in power (for example, during a rally in Thessaloniki in June 2006, and at a rally for the anniversary of the Greek genocide, in Athens, also in 2006). Also, on January 2, 2005, anti-fascist and leftist groups invaded Golden Dawn's headquarters in Thesaloniki, under heavy police surveillance. Although riot police units were near the entrance of the building alongside the intruders, they allegedly did not attempt to stop their actions.

In more recent years, anti-fascist and left-wing groups have claimed that many of Golden Dawn's members have close relations (and/or collaborating) with the Greek Central Intelligence Agency (KYP), and also accused the party's general-secretary Nikolaos Michaloliakos of working for the KYP from the 80s. The evidence for this is an allegedly fake public document, a payslip, showing the names of both Michaloliakos and Konstantinos Plevris as operating for the agency.

In July 2012, it was reported that Nils Muižnieks, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, had placed the alleged ties of Greek Police and Golden Dawn under scrutiny, following reports of the Greek state's continued failure to acknowledge the problem.

According to political analyst Paschos Mandravelis, "A lot of the party's backing comes from the police, young recruits who are a-political and know nothing about the Nazis or Hitler. For them, Golden Dawn supporters are their only allies on the frontline when there are clashes between riot police and leftists."

Following the May 6, 2012 Greek Parliamentary elections, it has been exposed the fact that in some districts more than one out of two Greek police officers voted for Golden Dawn party. Polling stations surrounding the Attica General Police Directorate in the Athens A constituency where on-duty police officers are known to have voted reported slightly more than 20% support for the party, whereas "civilian" polling stations in the constituency reported support of around 6%. The total percentage of Golden Dawn votes in Athens A was 7.8%. A police official stated that support for the party was high and growing among the police, as well as in the branches of the military.

• A Police Officer has been suspened pending investigation while 7 others have been identified for taking part in Golden Dawn raid against stalls (September 10, 2012) operated by migrants in an open-market at Mesolongi.

• Furthermore, following Golden Dawn's repeated attacks at Amerikis Square (Athens) against the Tanzanian Community (where Greek Police failed to proceed in Golden Dawn arrests), an anti-fascist protest was organised which led to clashes between anti-fascist groups and Golden Dawn. Arrests of anti-fascists were made by police, and it has been reported that the police used torture during their confinement in the Central Police Headquarters in Athens by members of the police force. Victims reported that police threatened the protesters that their home addresses would be given to Golden Dawn. (September 30, 2012).

• Members of the Golden Dawn gathered at "Xytirio theater" (Piraeus ave., Athens) along with priests and para-religious followers to condemn its "blasphemous" Terrence McNally’s play "Corpus Christi", chase and beat a journalist in front of police for taking pictures at the incident; his call for help went unreplied by bystanding police. According to other reports Golden Dawn lawmaker Christos Pappas entered the police van and released one of 4 detainees (October 11, 2012).