Convicted Golden Dawn member Giorgos Patelis, who formerly headed the ultra-right party's Nikea chapter, is to return to prison after the penal section of the Greek Supreme Court agreed to reverse a decision for his release.
A request to reverse the ruling issued by a five-member appeals court had been made by Deputy Supreme Court Prosecutor Haralambos Moysidis.
Patelis, 41, was arrested on Tuesday night after he appeared at the Attica Security Police headquarters and will be returned to jail.
He had been sentenced to serve 10 years in prison for his role in the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas (Killah P) and for his participation in Golden Dawn, which was found to be a criminal organisation.
According to Moysidis, the ruling for his release "vaguely mentions that he will not commit other crimes."
This is despite them finding that "he is an individual who, if released, is likely to commit further criminal acts."
He also dismissed arguments that Patelis' incarceration was deleterious to his family, noting that this was a natural outcome of imprisonment common to all convicts.
His lawyer said at the time of his release in October 2021 that Patelis’ son was facing mental health problems.
“There is no serious possibility of a new [criminal] act being committed as the specific offense was committed for specific reasons, in view of specific circumstances,” the prosecutor told the five-member appeals tribunal.
The leadership of Golden Dawn was sentenced to 13 years in prison on October 2020, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organisation blamed for numerous violent hate crimes.
Eleven other former parliament members were jailed for between five and seven years for membership of a criminal organisation, while a party associate was given a life sentence for the murder of Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas in 2013.
This attack triggered the crackdown against the party.
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