Greece’s crackdown on the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party in the wake of the killing of a 34-year-old anti-fascist for which one of its members was charged is reaching deep into the ranks of the police department, said to be sympathizers of the extremists.
Officers from the Greek police’s internal affairs division raided three police stations as part of an investigation into the activities of Golden Dawn which had been on a nearly unchecked rampage for months against immigrants, Communists, leftists and other imagined enemies of the party which wants to rid Greece of anyone who isn’t 100 percent pure Greek.
Police officials said internal affairs was investigating the police stations in three neighborhoods west of Athens where attacks against immigrants had been reported. The move came a day after the government replaced five senior police officers “to ensure the absolute objectivity” of the investigation because they had failed to act in the wake of the murder and were said to let potential suspects go free.
Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias met with the country’s President Karolos Papoulias, a resistance fighter against the Nazis in World War II, to discuss the crackdown against Golden Dawn, which was sparked by the killing of Pavlos Fyssas on Sept. 18, an event which set off a rage of protests against the party.
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