A court in Athens has sentenced Golden Dawn MP Ilias Kasidiaris to six months in prison for using "hate speech against immigrants and inciting supporters to violence."
The court on Thursday convicted Kasidiaris, spokesman for the extreme-right Golden Dawn party, following a speech posted online in 2011 by supporters. In it, he refers to immigrants as "human garbage" and called on locals in a low-income area near Athens to take direct action against foreign criminals.
The sentence was suspended for three years. The 36-year-old politician said he was "standing up for Greeks ... neglected by the state" and described the conviction as part of a politically orchestrated attack on his party.
