Originally published on December 18, 2013
Two suspected members of the far-right Golden Dawn Party went on trial before a criminal court of Athens on Wednesday for murdering a Pakistani immigrant in mid-January.
Dionysis Liakopoulos and Christos Steriopoulos, 25 and 29, could face life imprisonment if convicted of murder. The trial would last for several weeks.
Shehzad Luqman, a 27-year-old migrant worker from Pakistan, left his home in Peristeri and biked to work in the early morning on January 17.
Liakopoulos and Steriopoulos were riding on a motorcycle behind him. The pair claimed that they got into a fight as the cyclist was blocking the road. According to a taxi driver, the only witness, one of the men produced a knife and assaulted the Pakistani worker from behind.
Police tracked down and arrested the suspects near Syntagma Square hours after the death of the victim, as the taxi driver reported the license plate number of the motorcycle to the police shortly afterward.
Both men denied any intention to kill Luqman or links to the extreme right Golden Dawn Party. However, the police discovered dozens of the party's pamphlets after searching the home of one of the assaulters.
According to local newspaper Eleftherotypia, Luqman lived in Greece legally on a temporary residence permit. He worked odd jobs and sent his earnings back home to support his eight siblings.
Anti-immigrant sentiments have been brewing in Greece, as the country struggles to grapple with a battered economy. In a November poll by local newspaper Kosmos tou Ependyti, Golden Dawn is the third most popular political party in Greece with a support rate of 8.8 percent.
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