Known to have strong ties and sympathies for the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party that the government is trying to take apart in court, the Greek police force is under the spotlight too with reports that hundreds of officers have testified as part of an internal affairs investigation being carried out by the Greek Police trying to find if they’re linked to the extremists, SKAI TV reported.
More than 300 police officers have testified while 40 have been temporarily detained as suspects in the ongoing probe that is expanding in the wake of the killing of a 34-year-0ld hip-hop artist for which a man connected to Golden Dawn was charged. That led the government to remove the heads of five police units in a purge of its hierarchy feared to be too close to the party.
Of the 40 officers questioned, nine have been arrested as part of an ongoing investigation including officers in Piraeus, close to the spot where Pavlos Fyssas was fatally stabbed last month, and in the run-down central Athens district of Aghios Panteleimonas where support for Golden Dawn is high because Greek residents there are upset there is a large immigrant population.
Golden Dawn, which denies it, has been acccused of leading attacks on immigrants, with the numbers spiking after the party won 18 seats in Parliament last night and the government did little to curb the rising spate of assaults until a Greek was killed.
It was reported that as much as 40-50 percent of police officers voted for Golden Dawn last year and that some have looked the other way while party members carried out assaults and a police spokesman this month acknowledged it.
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