198th Hearing, Women’s Wing, Korydallos Prison, November 10th, 2017

I. Access to the Court

The courtroom remains open to the public upon presentation of a state ID card, which is retained by court authorities for the duration of the session, until all audience seats in the courtroom are filled. Few journalists and spectators showed up in court today.

II. Presence of defendants

None of the defendants was present at the hearing.

III. Testimony of protected witness B continues

A. Examination of the witness by the defense counsels

The officer of the court and the officer of the state prosecutor’s office confirmed that in the room are just them and the protected witness B, that the door is closed, that the witness has no documents in front of him, only a Bible. The witness was questioned in turn by defense counsels Gavelas, Oplantzakis, Stavrianakis, Papadellis, Michalolias N., Roussopoulos, Alexiadis, Michalolias T. Pantazi, Bairaktaris, and Michalolias G.

It must be noted that the defense counsels, knowing that the witness is a woman, posed questions and spoke to her using female adjectives. The witness refrained from giving information about her sex, her occupation, her family, and her address. She adamantly refused that she had granted an interview to the newspaper Ethnos.

When asked, the witness stated that she thought, and still thinks, that immigrants are harming Greece because they commit crimes and because many Greeks have lost their jobs because of them. So she decided to join Golden Dawn. Until then she had heard nothing of the crimes that were attributed to the organization’s members. She was a member of the organization for a period in 2012. After she joined Golden Dawn, she bought a bullet-proof vest and military clothes. The witness frequented the Nikaia chapter of Golden Dawn when she was a member, and went there five times a week. As for Michaloliakos, the witness heard nothing apart from the fact “that he gives the green light. […] Patelis had said that, when he explained to us the hierarchy of the organization. That he was the leader.”

According to the witness, when she joined the Nikaia chapter she had to show her state ID card and pay €20 to become a member of the open cell. They also provided her with a membership card which didn’t have her name and surname on it, only a number. She showed this card to the Supreme Court State Prosecutor. There were also the closed cells, the five-member council, INNOVA, the hackers, and the Centaurs. The members of the closed cell were bodybuilder types who carried out the attacks. The five-member council managed the local chapter as regards the supporters and various financial matters. INNOVA was a motorbike group that carried out attacks. The hackers dealt with online activities [internet posts, “attacks” to take down accounts, for example on facebook, etc.]. The Centaurs were a group of high school kids friendly to Golden Dawn.

The witness stated that she has heard that Tsakanikas is of Egyptian descent and for this reason he put his wife in the five-member council, but in essence he was the one that participated. She had also heard that the partner of Lagos is Albanian. The local chapter was to have a first aid group, which the witness wanted to join. She left before any such group was formed. Until then, Roupakias was in charge of the first aid kit, and he carried it with him everywhere.

The witness had participated in many rallies with motorbikes. She witnessed violent incidents in a Golden Dawn rally in Salamina. The witness clarified what she had said in her preliminary testimony -that the organization shouldn’t be stigmatized during the attacks- saying that she meant that the identity of the assailants shouldn’t be made known. The witness realized that the members of Golden Dawn used real weapons, when she heard that one of her comrades was stabbed during a training camp in Salamina when other trainees tried to take the flag from him. She had heard that Patelis was going around carrying two handguns, but she had never seen them. She had also heard in the local chapter Tsakanikas recounting an incident where he had kicked a Pakistani on the head as if it was a penalty kick. For this reason she said that Golden Dawners are “murderers”.

The witness was on good terms with Patelis, Roupakias, and various other members of the Nikaia chapter. She had participated in 5-6 food and clothing charity handouts. She was annoyed when she found out, because someone told her and she verified it herself, that the clothes that they gathered ended up being sold in the stalls of Pakistanis. The Pakistanis said that they had taken them from “Giorgos” [Patelis]. Futhermore, Patelis had kicked a pregnant woman right in front of the witness. He had connections with the local police and specifically with police officer Giovanidis. Patelis had said that along with Lagos and others they extorted Albanian shopkeepers. Because the witness had a disagreement with Patelis, he forced her to do 30 pushups in front of other members, and kicked her many times in the process. According to the witness there are many members of Golden Dawn who have left the organization and there are people who could verify what she said about the activities of Patelis.

The witness didn’t know that P. Fyssas had been made a target. She learned it on the day after the murder, from members of Golden Dawn. One of them told her that P. Fyssas had been targeted because of his antifascist songs. Apart from the Pakistanis, Golden Dawn’s enemies include the communists and the antifascists. Pavlos Fyssas was a Greek and the witness couldn’t accept the fact that Golden Dawn killed a Greek “if it wasn’t a ‘job’” [that is, something planned in advance]. She could never have thought that Roupakias would do such a thing. The witness explained that, after the murder of Pavlos Fyssas, she went to a police station of her own free will, and she was sent to GADA, from where she was sent to the Supreme Court deputy state prosecutor who was conducting the relevant investigation at the time.

IV. Motion by a defense counsel

Defense counsel Papadellis motioned again to make known the dates that the witnesses were placed under the Witness Protection Program. The presiding judge placed this motion under consideration.
The presiding judge adjourned for November 13th, 2017, at the Women’s Wing of the Korydallos Prison, when the protected witness C is expected testify.