Leaders of Greece’s extreme-right Golden Dawn party given lengthy prison terms

The landmark ruling follows a five-year trial of dozens of top officials, members and supporters of Golden Dawn, an organisation founded as a neo-Nazi group in the 1980s

Presiding judge Maria Lepenioti reads the sentences (Petros Giannakouris/AP)

A Greek court sentenced the leadership of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party to 13 years in prison today, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organisation blamed for numerous violent hate crimes.

Presiding judge Maria Lepenioti read out the sentences against party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and seven other former politicians.