[ad_1]
“The implications of the Golden Dawn decision – the political rights of convicts” was the subject of an online public debate organized by the Circle of Ideas. A discussion that took place at the end of the long and controversial trial, while the new Penal Code was, as the title of the meeting suggests, at the center of the “meeting”. Since, as Evangelos Venizelos pointed out in the introduction, three of the participants in the discussion, Christoforos Argyropoulos, Elisavet Symeonidou – Kastanidou and Vassilis Markis actively participated in the writing of the Poin. Code.
The discussion began with the former deputy prime minister and professor of constitutional law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, to make some more political comments, such as: “The law against racism approved in September 2014 by the government of Samaras-Venizelos deals with crimes of expression, it is not about criminal organizations or homicides “or that after the murder of Fyssa, which was” the catalyst “for what happened later,” Golden Dawn was re-elected in the January 2015 elections. ” intermediate role in the July 2015 referendum and was left out of Parliament in the July 2019 elections ”.
The prosecutor’s decision was not affected
In another aversion to his speech, E. Venizelos affirmed, “the fact that the prosecutor of the headquarters proposed to be acquitted for the crime of forming a criminal organization and now proposes to grant the suspension, shows that neither the demonstrations nor the statements of politicians people influence the judiciary. “
On the occasion of the Golden Dawn lawsuit against EKPA Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law Nikos Alivizatos, who also participated in the discussion panel, Mr. Venizelos recalled that the same lawsuit had been filed against him, but that it was filed without to get to Parliament. “And many were relieved of the dilemma of what to say.” We went through a period of flirting with Golden Dawn when the votes didn’t smell bad and when parliamentary correlations formed with the active or passive inclusion of Golden Dawn votes, “he said.
PK is the product of a long scientific incubation
In purely legal terms, the former minister said he agreed with the abolition of the accessory penalty of deprivation of civil rights. “The Penal Code has been modernized and rightly offended by criminal law science and high-ranking figures who claim that the Penal Code was a ploy to facilitate the Golden Dawn. “It was the product of a long scientific incubation with great responsibility,” he added.
On the subject that has long occupied the debate, about whether electoral obstacles can be put in the Golden Dawn, E. Venizelos took a position saying: crimes of high discredit and this entails the right to be elected ”. After all, “a criminal organization cannot be renamed as a party, but only with an irrevocable conviction. Meanwhile, the Greek people can answer whether they want the Golden Dawn inside or outside Parliament.”
People can answer
In this regard, N. Alivizatos expressed the opinion that, “a party with extreme views cannot be put in the same bag, which does not use violence as an element of its daily action, but possibly its supporters in a demonstration break a shop window, with a party like the Golden Dawn, with the assault battalions, the well-known uniforms, the intimidation of the people and so on, where the element of violence is inherent in the party. ”To conclude,“ if we could define it at the level of law, to do so, I don’t think we will succeed. We must trust the Greek judge, in this case the 1st Chamber of the Supreme Court. “
For his part, Charalambos Anthopoulos, professor of Law and Administration at the EAP, stressed that “the electoral ban, which is a softer measure than the great ban that means dissolution, is gaining ground. Introduce a provision in the electoral legislation, according to which electoral combinations will not be announced, nor individual candidates. Here we do not have the reef of irrevocable condemnation (…) A party that uses violence or incites it or has candidates convicted in the first instance may be prohibited from standing in the elections. “The legislator can and should impose an electoral ban.”
Argyropoulos: Criminal stigma is enough
The lawyer Christoforos Argyropoulos, who was also president of the Legislative Drafting Commission of the Penal Code, in its last draft, naturally defended the Code: “The right to be elected adds nothing to the author’s disapproval, the criminal stigma is enough” . If the electoral legislator wants to safeguard the legitimacy of the legislature and considers that the perpetrators of certain crimes cannot be candidates for elections, “no additional punishment is needed, but to say, ‘whoever is convicted of premeditated murder, etc., does not may be a candidate. ‘”
The next speaker, Spyros Vlachopoulos, Professor of Constitutional Law at the EKPA, pointed out at the end of his speech that the resignation of positions provided for in the new Penal Code. The code is not equivalent to the deprivation of civil rights granted by the previous one. This is due to the fact that “it presupposes that they already occupy the position, in addition the acts constitute a serious breach of the duties derived from the position. A coordinated, serious formulation based on the principle of proportionality of electoral legislation is required so that they are incompatible with the right to vote and be elected, when we have an irrevocable decision ”.
Elisavet Symeonidou-Kastanidou: The tools we use now have existed ever since
Along with her purely legal comments, Elisavet Symeonidou-Kastanidou, Professor of Criminal Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, made an “accusation”: “Golden Dawn”, she complained, “acted for many years literally without The fact that he beat the fishermen, that he attacked the members of PAME, that he killed the Pakistani, tragically left the police, the prosecution, and we must not forget them so that they do not happen again. We had complaints from European organizations and international human rights organizations that pressured the government to react and no one reacted. It was as if nothing was happening, as if there was a parallel universe in which Golden Dawn could act undisturbed. This was the big problem that inflated the power of Golden Dawn. And it was necessary, and should not have been necessary, the murder of Fyssa to start the criminal process. “I am not optimistic about what has happened downstairs,” he said, referring to us. e to the racist slogans of the Coast Guard in a parade. “This”, he concluded, “means that it is a belief ingrained in a part of the state machine, I don’t know how big it is, but it should concern us as a state.” Golden Dawn was not isolated and it was everyone’s responsibility that it was not dealt with in time. “The tools that we use now have been around ever since and sadly they haven’t been used,” he said emphatically.
Markis: The ATHEX case will occupy us for five years
“The Golden Dawn case will occupy us at least another five years,” said Vassilis Markis, honorary deputy prosecutor for the Supreme Court, explaining the “why”: “Until the minutes are cleared, if my information is correct.” The secretary kept the handwritten minutes, you see, the minutes of the five-year meetings, until the decision is clarified, the case is determined and the case is tried again from the beginning … “. In addition, in the appeals court we will have a new trial of the first instance. Even with practical problems resolved, this trial cannot last less than three years, he estimated. Therefore, he continued, “it is obvious that the next elections will find convicted candidates and it is up to the citizens …”.
At trial, V. Markis described the prosecutor’s proposal as “erroneous, mainly legal,” because he did not identify himself on the grounds of the suspension. “I have the impression that the court will rectify things, as it did in the guilty plea,” he said, describing the court’s decision on the penal system as “comforting”: “It was a happy circumstance that the verdict coincided with the public. on the sense of justice “. Critic of the political system ”, he identified himself and held on to identify only one day, Wednesday, before the decision was issued. Starting the next day, partisan rivalries popularized the issue. ‘The people who were responsible for the new Penal Code appeared as instruments of a place, in order to help Golden Dawn fall into the’ soft ‘. “It is not our turn, we were all anxious for a modern Penal Code,” he said.
Finally, the lawyer Antipas Karipoglou remarked that “the electoral law cannot say anything more, but also nothing less, than what the Constitution says”, after all, such a law would in fact be unconstitutional, because the legislative power would come to Tell the courts how you will interpret the Constitution. “It is a completely wrong approach to ban the political ancestry of Golden Dawn or a successor group, and not harm others.”
In conclusion, “it will be a fair decision and victory for the Republic only if the rights of the accused are not violated until the end. If we open the door of prohibition today, we have no guarantee that we will decide tomorrow, no guarantee that the door we open will allow only what we want to happen and not many other things. “I’d rather have him (Golden Dawn) be frowned upon at the polls than have bans and hatch the snake egg from below.”
Source: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ
[ad_2]
