Golden Dawn MP Pappas released from jail

By Magda Panoutsopoulou

ANKARA

Far-right Golden Dawn MP Christos Pappas has been released from jail in Greece after serving an 18-month pre-trial detention term. 

Pappas, who faces trial along with other Golden Dawn MPs on charges of participating in a criminal organization, was released Sunday under the auspices of Appeals Prosecutor Dimitris Asprogerakas on condition he did not leave the country or travel outside the region of Attica by air or sea.

He has also been ordered to present himself to a police department three times a month and to spend his nights only at his home.

Two other MPs including secretary general Nikos Michaloliakos and deputy Yiannis Lagos were released last week and allowed to rejoin the Greek parliament.

A trial of Golden Dawn members is scheduled to begin in April.

Political breakthrough

Golden Dawn was formed in 1980, but was not registered as a political party until 1993.

Its political breakthrough came in the 2012 elections when it received 6.92 percent of the vote, making it Greece's fifth-largest political group and enabling it to enter parliament for the first time.

It won three seats in the European Parliament after taking 9.4 percent of the vote in the 2014 European elections.

Golden Dawn got 6.31 percent of votes in Greece's Jan. 25, national elections, giving them 17 parliamentary seats.

Its rise coincided with the European economic crisis which has seen Greece suffer tremendous recession, job losses and budget cuts, which led to a bailout from European Union partners and strict austerity measures.