Former spokesman of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party Ilias Kasidiaris was released from Domokos prison in central Greece on Tuesday after completing his sentence for his role in a criminal organization.

“I gave my word that once I passed through this gate I would return, not merely to freedom, but also to the front lines of our national struggles. And today, I am returning,” he declared to the media upon leaving prison.

Kasidiaris referred to an unspecified “new, powerful national party—like those dominating the rest of Europe” that would prepare his comeback, claiming his goal is “to rid the country of the most corrupt government of the post-dictatorship era,” amid cheers from dozens of people gathered around him.

He then mocked politicians who are “literally whining and conspiring” about his possible return to politics and even invoked democracy. “The decision is not theirs to make. In a democracy, there is but one judge: the sovereign Greek people—all of you, the thinking Greek citizens.”

Kasidiaris, 45, was sentenced to 13½ years in prison in October 2020 in a landmark trial that found Golden Dawn to be a criminal organization operating under the guise of a political party. The court found that senior party members were responsible for directing an organization linked to violent attacks against migrants and political opponents.

In 2023, the Supreme Court banned the far-right National Party-Greeks, a party founded by Kasidiaris, from participating in the country’s general election that was held on May 21 of that year, upholding legal amendments approved by lawmakers that disqualified parties led by politicians convicted of serious offenses or ones that would not “serve the free functioning of [Greece’s] democratic constitution.”

Source: Ekathimerini.com