Thirteen of Greek police' top brass officers were removed from their positions on September 23 following last week's killing of an anti-fascist activist in Athens by a self-confessed supporter of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party.
Authorities in Athens announced that two force commanders in Central Greece resigned for "personal reasons" while another three from the same area were being suspended until an investigation into why the local force apparently remained impassive while Golden Dawn members were out in plain sight just a few meters away from the police station is completed.
Another eight officers, manning some of the forces most critical posts, like the head of security and the heads of the organised crime squad, have been moved "to ensure, in an absolute way, the objectivity of the investigation" of alleged links between the Greek police and Golden Dawn.
Since May 2012, when Golden Dawn emerged from the margins of Greek politics to claim 18 seats in the country's parliament, reports of collusion or of a "special relationship" between the police and Golden Dawn have repeatedly emerged.
The move follows the murder of a Greek anti-nazi activist and rapper, Pavlos Fyssas, also known as KillahP, on September 18.
Golden Dawn, whose members openly praise Hitler and his regime and say all immigration to Greece is illegal, rose to become the third party in Greece in just over a year. But polls conducted since Fyssas' killing show a marked decline in Golden Dawn ratings, which in one case have declined by almost a third.
A number of demos against the party have taken place since the killing with another planned for Thursday.
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