ATHENS, March 4 (Xinhua) -- An appeals court in Athens on Wednesday upheld a 2020 ruling that the far-right, now-defunct party Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avghi) operated as a criminal organization.

The court found all 42 defendants guilty in the long-running case, which examined the party's activities, including extortion, illegal weapons possession, murder, and dozens of violent assaults against migrants and political opponents.

Seven defendants were convicted of directing the criminal organization, while the remaining defendants -- including 11 former members of parliament -- were found guilty of membership.

The court also upheld convictions related to the 2013 murder of anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was killed in a suburb near the port of Piraeus. His murder triggered a sweeping crackdown on Golden Dawn, which had entered the Greek parliament during the country's financial crisis. The perpetrator, Georgios Roupakias, was sentenced to life imprisonment, while 14 other defendants were found guilty as accomplices to homicide.

Following the original verdict, senior party figures received lengthy prison sentences. Some defendants have remained in prison since the initial ruling, while others, including party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, have been released under restrictive conditions.

Golden Dawn was founded in the 1980s and formally registered as a political party in 1993. It rose rapidly during Greece's sovereign debt crisis and, in the May and June 2012 general elections, secured nearly 7 percent of the vote, becoming the third-largest party in the Greek parliament.

After several of its members were investigated and prosecuted for violent crimes, the party's political influence steadily declined. In 2020, an Athens court ruled that it functioned as a criminal organization, a decision widely seen as marking the end of its role in Greek politics. ■