Greece: Police intensively searching for murderers of right-wing extremists

The Greek Police are intensively searching for whoever it was that shot two members of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party to death last Friday in Athens. Two people were killed and a third seriously injured in the drive-by shooting. 

On Monday police said the crime had been very well planned and that they had not yet managed to determine anything essential about the perpetrators. The Greek media are speculating that the ultra-left might have been behind the attack, but no evidence of that has been discovered so far.

The crime is being investigated by an anti-terrorist unit. "This was, in my opinion, a professionally performed assault," a police spokesperson told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. 

A ballistic expert’s finding reported that the weapon used for the murder is not listed in the police database of firearms previously used in other crimes. According to the Greek news server Ekathimerini, the weapon was a nine-millimeter Zastava Tokarev pistol and 12 rounds remained behind at the crime scene.   

While the assault was filmed by a security camera, those who perpetrated it wore helmets to make it harder to identify them. The attack on the neo-Nazis shocked Greece and has been widely covered by the media.

Greek commentators say the murder could exacerbate the situation in the crisis-stricken country. The Athens-based daily newspaper Ta Nea, for example, made the story front-page news with a headline reading "12 bullets against democracy".  

The incident took place several weeks after the Greek authorities charged six Golden Dawn MPs with "criminal conspiracy". The Greek justice system has been crusading against the country’s neo-Nazis after a Golden Dawn supporter murdered a left-wing activist musician.

The drive-by shooting took place at the Golden Dawn office in a western suburb of Athens. Jorgos Germenis, the party’s legal representative, told the Associated Press that the victims were two men between 20 and 30 years old. 

The victims were shot by one of two men who drove past on a single motorcycle. Ilias Kassidiaris, the spokesperson for Golden Dawn, told Greek television station Star TV that the incident was a carefully planned terrorist attack.  

Greek Interior Minister Nikos Dendias expressed sorrow over the incident. "The country will not be allowed to become a battlefield for the settling of scores," he said.