[InTime News]
Originally slated to begin last summer, the trial against 11 former MPs of the far-right Spartans party has been postponed for a second time after defendants argued that they needed to be in Parliament for the no-confidence debate.
The ex-lawmakers face charges of election fraud after being accused of acting as a Trojan horse for Ilias Kasidiaris so that the jailed deputy, who was once a leading member of the neo-Nazi Golden party, could maintain a presence, by proxy, in Parliament.
Kasidiaris is also in the dock for allegedly orchestrating the party’s formation and getting it above the 3% threshold needed to enter Parliament in the 2023 general elections. The influential Golden Dawn figure is widely believed to have run a covert social media campaign from prison to get the party elected and to maintain his support base.
The prosecutor in the case objected to the postponement of the trial, which is now scheduled to take place on March 13.