Two jailed “lieutenants” of the now disbanded neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) are reportedly awaiting release, according to reports citing a decision by a council of misdemeanor justices in the south-central city of Lamia.

Ilias Panagiotaros and Christos Pappas were convicted for their role in Golden Dawn, which was declared a criminal organization by an Athens appellate-level court in October 2020. They have been imprisoned at the Domokos penitentiary – near Lamia – since their conviction. Both were elected as deputies in Greece’s parliament in the past.

As in similar cases of parole for convicted felons, the council is expected to impose restrictive measures, such as a ban on traveling abroad and a mandatory appearance at a police precinct every month. Golden Dawn had secured 18 MPs in the 2012 election, smack in the middle of the punishing economic and political crisis plaguing the country at the time.

The criminal inquiry, begun under a New Democracy (ND) government at the time and with Nikos Dendias holding the justice portfolio, focused the extremist party after one of its members fatally stabbed an anti-fascist rapper in September 2013.