Politics

Greece's Golden Dawn Leaders to Be Charged with Organized Crime

Far right, fascist political party accused of essentially running a military cell

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One word leaps out at you from the seven page Greek indictment document against Golden Dawn. It is "fuhrerprinzip"—the leader principle, spelled out in Roman type.

Since Saturday, Greek anti-terror police have arrested six of the far-right party's MPs and 16 activists, who they will charge on Tuesday, collectively, with organised crime.

Key to the prosecution is the argument that the party's leaders controlled a military-style cell structure, that they trained attack groups, and that it was the political leadership—the MPs themselves—who controlled the apparatus of violence.

Nothing happened without orders, and orders were followed rigidly, say prosecutors—as with Adolf Hitler's "fuhrerprinzip".