Greece\u2019s Supreme Court prosecutor has said charges should be brought against 11 far-right lawmakers on suspicion of deceiving voters in a June 2023 national election by taking guidance from a jailed politician, the Athens News Agency said on Thursday.
\nThe 11 lawmakers were elected with the far-right party Spartans \u2013 although four are now sitting as independents, including two who quit the party on Thursday.
\nIf the lawmakers\u2019 election was annulled as a result of the case, following misdemeanour charges being officially brought and leading to a trial, their seats could be distributed to the rest of the parties in the 300-seat parliament.
\nThe party barely registered in polls before the June 2023 election until Ilias Kasidiaris, who is serving a jail term for his leadership role in the banned Golden Dawn party, endorsed it from his prison cell.
\nThe prosecutor\u2019s investigation found evidence that the real leader of the Spartans was indeed Kasidiaris and not its official leader Vassilios Stigas, whose complaint over illegal acts within the party triggered the probe, ANA reported.
\nUnder Greek law, parties cannot run in elections if their \u201creal leaders\u201d, not only their official representatives, have been convicted for crimes that carry a sentence of up to life imprisonment, ranging from treason or spying to participating in a criminal organisation.
\nKasidiaris is expected to be charged, ANA said, citing the prosecutor\u2019s order. Kasidiaris, through a statement by his lawyer Vaso Pantazi, has denied any wrongdoing, saying that the case was \u201ca joke\u201d.
\nGeorge Manousos, one of the lawmakers who resigned on Thursday, said in a statement to parliament: \u201cUntil now, I remained in the (Spartans) parliamentary group, due to my belief that Greek justice would not find a single grain of credibility in these false statements.\u201d
\nIoannis Dimitrokallis also resigned, saying that \u201cthe criminal charge brought against me has made me unrightfully accountable to judicial authorities over the crime of deceiving voters following the untrue, false and defamatory statements by V. Stigas\u201d.
\nStigas called on his lawmakers to remain united and said that the Spartans party was being targeted.
\nAn election court is expected to issue a ruling over the case by June, according to leading newspaper Kathimerini, which could also have an impact on the party ahead of elections to the European Parliament in that month.
\n(Reuters)election fraud. deceiving voters, far-right lawmakers, election court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greece’s Supreme Court prosecutor has recommended charges against 11 far-right lawmakers for deceiving voters in the June 2023 national election by taking guidance from a jailed politician. If the lawmakers’ election is annulled, their seats could be distributed to other parties in the parliament. The real leader of the Spartans party was found to be Ilias Kasidiaris, not the official leader Vassilios Stigas. Kasidiaris is expected to be charged, but he denies any wrongdoing. The case could impact the party ahead of the European Parliament elections in June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3323,3894,932,21,3635,5036,1600,5038,153,1213,1216,1610,575,5037,1616,3970,747,1419,2667,582,3940,3331,4941,1799,131,720,2920,1827,168,618,114,1906,1379,18],"class_list":["post-6900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-athens","tag-charges","tag-court","tag-crime","tag-crimes","tag-deceiving-voters","tag-election","tag-election-court","tag-elections","tag-european-parliament","tag-european-parliament-elections","tag-evidence","tag-far-right","tag-far-right-lawmakers","tag-far-right-party","tag-grain","tag-greece","tag-investigation","tag-jail","tag-justice","tag-leaders","tag-news","tag-organisation","tag-parliament","tag-prison","tag-rest","tag-sentence","tag-statement","tag-supreme-court","tag-top","tag-top-news","tag-trial","tag-voters","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n