A member of the Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party was found guilty of inciting racist violence after threatening to turn immigrants into soap and to put them in ovens.
Alexandros Plomeratis, a losing candidate for the party in recent elections, was given a one-year suspended jail sentence by an Athens court. He had been filmed in a British documentary making Holocaust-laced references that threatened immigrants who live in Athens.
“We are ready to turn on the ovens,” he said. “We will turn them into soap but we may get a rash.” Plomeratis also threatened to “make lamps from their skins.”
He told the court that his comments were filmed during a private conversation and he was “only joking,” according to the Kathimerini newspaper.
Greece has tried to crack down on Golden Dawn. The party, which has 18 seats in parliament, frequently uses Nazi imagery. Its leaders have denied the existence of Nazi death camps. — jta