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| - For more than five years, the diminutive black-clad woman was a steady fixture in a trial that would finally produce a landmark ruling for Greek politics on Wednesday. Magda Fyssas sat alone through almost all the 450-plus court sessions before getting the result she had been waiting for, when the neo-Nazi militant who murdered her son, anti-fascist rapper Pavlos, was convicted. He was found guilty along with his leader Nikos Michaloliakos and the entire neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party structure that had beaten and intimidated opponents for years. "Pavlos, you did it," she yelled, her arms raised in triumph, after the court declared that Golden Dawn had operated as a criminal organisation, heralding heavy sentences for its top brass. "We won a battle... but fascism is not beaten like this. It takes struggle," the 60-year-old former textiles worker later told reporters. Fyssas had earlier entered the courtroom wearing a black mask stamped with her son's rapper nickname: Killah P. His killing during a street brawl on September 18, 2013 helped shed light on the actions of Golden Dawn, shocking the nation and forcing a response from authorities, who had until then done little to stem the group's violence. In January 2013, suspected Golden Dawn members had also fatally stabbed a Pakistani migrant but that case was only investigated in earnest after Fyssas's killing. Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said Wednesday's "historic" ruling "confirmed that democracy and its institutions will always be able to overcome any attempt to undermine them". Party leader Michaloliakos in 2015 assumed "political responsibility" for Fyssas' murder, but he always denied criminal blame. Fyssas' killer Roupakias claimed he acted in self defence, telling the court that the rapper assaulted him first. But witnesses said a group of suspected Golden Dawn members had "hunted down" Fyssas and stabbed him with a "professional" strike to the heart. Fyssas' family said the rapper's anti-fascist lyrics had made him a target for the group that made a point of intimidating its enemies. Even so, chief prosecutor Adamantia Economou last year called for the acquittal of the party leaders on the basis that the existence of a criminal organisation could not be conclusively proven. Magda Fyssas also endured taunts from Golden Dawn supporters during the trial. "Where is your Pavlos now?" one of them had shouted at her in 2017. Greek courts had for years been unable to keep Golden Dawn from running in elections as laws in the country prohibit the suppression of ideology. At the height of its influence, Golden Dawn had 18 lawmakers in parliament and was the country's third most popular party. Many of its voters were police. When Roupakias was arrested, he told a police officer: "I'm one of you." But in national elections in 2019, amid a flurry of defections, it failed to enter parliament for the first time since 2012. A memorial to Pavlos Fyssas has been erected at an Athens highway near the spot where he fell, and a local street now bears his name. jph/er
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