Portrait of an Extremist: Nikos Michaloliakos

ATHENS - Nikos Michaloliakos, the leader of Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, is a disciple of a former Greek military dictator, who led his fringe group all the way to Parliament. Just over a year after it took Greek politics by storm to elect 18 MPs for the first time in its history, Golden Dawn has been labelled a 'criminal organization' by judicial authorities. Michaloliakos, a 56-year-old mathematician, was jailed on Oct. 3 pending his trial. He has already been jailed on two occasions in the late 1970s for assaulting journalists and participating in bomb attacks in Athens. While in prison, he befriended ex-dictator George Papadopoulos and was handpicked to lead the youths of far-right group EPEN after the fall of the Greek junta in 1974.

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