Golden Dawn MP Barbarousis led to court to face high treason charges

Golden Dawn MP Konstantinos Barbarousis was led to an Athens court today and was given until 20 June to prepare his testimony on charges of preparatory acts for high treason, which is a felony.

The charges concern his 15 June speech in parliament, before he was expelled from Golden Dawn’s parliamentary group, in which called upon the military to arrest the President of the Republic, the PM, and the Defence Minister, so as to block the signing of the FYROM naming agreement.

Barbarousis was arrested this morning at the home of a friend in Penteli.

The now independent MP denies the charges filed against him. According to his attorney, P. Koratzopoulos, the entire affairs involves “an unfortunate choice of expressions that were incorporated in his speech at a moment of emotional outburst”.

Koratzopoulos said that his client’s phraseology is “obviously not suitable for provoking the crimes of which he is accused”. He said the weakness of the charge is its hyperbole.

The attorney noted that his client has already revoked the “condemnable phrases”, which he will also do before the investigating magistrate, and that his intention was to confront the top state officials “with their responsibilities”.

The charges were filed following a prosecutor’s investigation, which was conducted on the same day of the speech, following the intervention of Justice Minister Stavros Kontonis, who requested that the Supreme Court take up the case, and after a request filed by Defence Minister Panos Kammenos and Alternate Defence Minister Fotis Kouvelis.