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ATHENS — Greek neo-Nazi MEP Ioannis Lagos was arrested in Brussels on Tuesday after the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted to lift his immunity.
A Greek court last year found Lagos, along with the rest of the top brass of his extreme-right Golden Dawn party, guilty of running a criminal organization.
He was sentenced to 13 years in prison, but his status as an MEP meant he could not be arrested or extradited before his parliamentary immunity was lifted.
On Monday, the Parliament did just that. According to the results announced on Tuesday morning, 658 MEPs voted in favor of stripping Lagos of his immunity, while 25 voted against and 10 abstained.
Belgian police subsequently arrested Lagos, who wrote on Twitter: “I am in a Belgian police car. Thieves, atheists and anti-Greeks take me to prison. I remain faithful to Christ and Greece. I am proud that I never bowed.”
A Belgian court will now have to rule on Greece’s request to extradite Lagos, a process that could take months.
Some Greek politicians have criticized the slow pace of the proceedings, while others said Greece could have sent its request far earlier.
“Greek authorities could have sent a request to lift his immunity since 2019, without waiting for the final court decision, and the European Parliament could have accelerated and given priority to this case of a person already convicted for such severe crimes,” said Greek Socialist MEP Nikos Androulakis.
But he was glad the matter was finally dealt with. “Greece will finally stop being exposed by the presence of Lagos in the European Parliament, enjoying the same rights as the rest of us and being given the floor to express his views,” he said.
Golden Dawn rose to prominence during Greece’s financial crisis, becoming the third-most-popular party in the Greek parliament in 2012. Its support has since plunged, and it failed to enter parliament in the 2019 election.
Lagos was elected to the European Parliament in 2019 as an independent candidate while a landmark trial against the party’s senior leadership was ongoing.
The trial, frequently described as the largest Nazi trial since Nuremberg, finally came to a close in October last year. One senior party member, Christos Pappas, remains on the run.
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