Golden Dawn cell leader remanded custody over Fyssas murder

Giorgos Patelis, the head of Golden Dawn’s cell in Nikaia, southern Athens, was remanded in custody for a second time on Friday after being questioned by magistrates in connection to the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas in September.

Patelis was already being held on charges of being part of a criminal gang but is also facing a separate charge of being an accomplice to Fyssas’s murder, which was carried out by Giorgos Roupakias.

Sources said Patelis insisted nobody in Golden Dawn had prior knowledge about an attack taking place. He admitted to magistrates Ioanna Klapa and Maria Dimitropoulou, however, that he did receive a call on his mobile phone from Roupakias shortly after the murder and that he, in turn, called Golden Dawn MP Yiannis Lagos to inform him of what happened. Patelis denied contacting party leader Nikos Michaloliakos.