Greece Links 10 Cops To Golden Dawn

Greek authorities said a probe by the Police Department’s Internal Affairs investigators has found that 10 officers have been linked to crimes by the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party whose top leaders have been arrested on charges of running a criminal organization.
“Overall 15 officers were arrested for various crimes … 10 of them were directly or indirectly linked to criminal activities of Golden Dawn,” the head of the Internal Affairs Department Panagiotis Stathis said during a press conference.
Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias ordered the investigation at the end of September, following allegations of police officers covering up or tolerating illegal activities by the extremists, who have been accused of conducting assaults on immigrants and other targets.
The investigators said they also checked alleged police involvement in incidents of racist attacks. “Between 2009 and October 2013, there was a huge rise in officers’ involvement in incidents of extreme police behavior, which reached a peak in 2012,” Stathis said. That coincided with Golden Dawn winning 18 seats in Parliament.
“Greek police is conducting a self-cleansing operation,” Dendias added in a separate statement. The crackdown on the cops follows one on Golden Dawn, whose leader has been jailed pending trial, while five other Members of Parliament from his party are facing charges too.
The arrests came in the wake of the murder of an anti-fascist musician on Sept. 18 by a self-confessed neo-Nazi. Three of the MP’s are in detention, including the leader, Nikos Michaloliakos.
Court documents have linked Golden Dawn to two murders, three attempted murders and numerous assaults, while witnesses have testified that senior party members were involved in migrant beatings, extortion and possible arms smuggling. Police have long been accused by rights groups and Greek opposition parties of ignoring or condoning Golden Dawn’s activities.