Athens: The Greek parliament Wednesday lifted the immunity of four more Golden Dawn (GD) legislators who face charges for participating in a criminal organisation, as the crackdown against the ultra-right party continues.
With 213 votes in favour versus 16 votes against, the 300-strong plenary session paved the way for GD deputies Antonis Gregos, Polyvios Zissimopoulos, Artemis Matheopoulos and Constantinos Varvaroussis to be tried along with several other party MPs who have been detained on the same charges since autumn, Xinhua reported.
Out of an initial 18 MPs, 15 GD members now face charges and six, including party chief Nikos Michaloliakos, are being held in pre-trial custody. Two deputies, who were elected to parliament on GD tickets in the 2012 general elections, quit its parliamentary group earlier this spring.
All GD MPs claimed that they were innocent and were the victims of persecution for political motives.
The crackdown against the neo-Fascist party started after the murder of an anti-Fascist activist by a party supporter in September.
The party first entered the Greek parliament in the 2012 elections, garnering 7 percent of the vote by capitalising on voter anger over austerity introduced to address Greece`s acute debt crisis.
In the latest opinion surveys ahead of May`s municipal elections and polls for the European parliament, GD is projected to win 8 to 10 percent of the vote.
On May 11, Greece`s supreme court is expected to determine whether the party can participate in the upcoming elections after recent developments or whether it should face censure.
