The case concerned their depositions in the Parliament in March 2018 against minority MPs, whom they had called “agents of Turkey”.
The three convicted were found not guilty as members of the leadership group of the criminal organization Golden Dawn Nikos Michaloliakos, Ilias Kasidiaris and Panagiotis Iliopoulos by the 3rd Single-member Misdemeanor Court for the charge of inciting racist violence.
The decision was made with an analogous prosecutorial proposal according to which even if the disputed phrase about “agents” and “Turkish consciousness”does not fall under racist speech as it does not contain phrases that incite violence.
The Prosecutor said that the Michaloliakos and Iliopoulos they did not participate in the Parliamentary Committee, of which Kasidiaris was a member, in which, according to the accusation, Kasidiaris heard the controversial phrases and thus directly requested their release.
“A representative of the Republic of Cyprus participated in this committee. All that is said about Turkish agents is not true. The Ethics Committee had imposed a penalty on me because I came into confrontation with other MPs and not with the particular minority MP. I never referred to ethnic origin or national consciousness. I only referred to the statements of Recep Tayyip Erdogan” said Ilias Kasidiaris in his apology.
Panagiotis Iliopoulos said that he was not even present at this committee. Correspondingly, this was the claim put forward by the side of Nikos Michaloliakos.
The decision was accepted by the assembled fans of Ilias Kasidiaris with applause.
The advocate of Ilias Kasidiaris Vaso Pantazis stated that her client’s party has appealed to the Areio Pagos against the party “Hellenes”, which has also appealed against the “National party Hellenes” of the condemned for the Golden Dawn. The appeal of Ilias Kasidiaris concerns the use of the Vergina Sun. The advocate, answering a question, ruled out any cooperation of the Kasidiaris party with those of Mr. Kanelopoulos and Mr. Nikolopoulos.
Source: Skai
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