Athens, Oct 7 (IANS): After more than five years of trial, the leadership of Greece's neo-Nazi party has been convicted of running a criminal organisation.

Big crowds gathered outside the court in Athens as the judges gave verdicts on 68 defendants, the BBC reported.

Golden Dawn won 18 MPs in 2012 as Greeks were battered by a financial crisis.

The criminal inquiry into the party began with the murder of an anti-fascist rapper in 2013.

Leader Nikos Michaloliakos and six colleagues were convicted of heading a criminal group. Supporter Giorgos Roupakias was found guilty of murdering an anti-racist musician and 15 others were convicted of conspiracy in the case.

Some 2,000 police were being deployed around Athens Appeals Court as thousands of protesters demanded long jail terms, carrying banners that read "fear will not win" and "Nazis in prison", Greek media reported.

Tear gas was fired into the crowd as clashes began.

Hundreds of witnesses gave evidence in the trial, which this year has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the centre of the trial are Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos and 18 ex-MPs who were elected in 2012 when the neo-Nazi party came third in national elections on an anti-immigrant, nationalist platform. Golden Dawn no longer has any MPs in parliament,

Golden Dawn supporter Giorgos Roupakias had already confessed to the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas. The musician was chased down by thugs and stabbed in Piraeus in September 2013.

The key verdict on Wednesday was that Golden Dawn - Chrysi Avgi in Greek - was a criminal group. Its leadership was found guilty of running it.

They included Michaloliakos and six colleagues, including former MPs Ilias Kasidiaris, Ioannis Lagos, Christos Pappas and Giorgos Germenis. Others were found guilty of joining a criminal organisation.

As well as the deadly stabbing of Pavlos Fyssas, defendants in the trial were also convicted of other violent attacks on migrants and left-wing political opponents.

Five Golden Dawn members were convicted of the attempted murders of Egyptian fishermen and four of the attempted murder of communist activists in the PAME union.

Nikos Michaloliakos founded the movement in the mid-1980s and was admirer of Nazism and a Holocaust denier, giving the Hitler salute at party rallies.

But he had always denied any knowledge of the Pavlos Fyssas murder. When police raided his home in 2013, they found weapons and ammunition.

Golden Dawn officially denied being a neo-Nazi movement, but its badge closely resembled a swastika, some senior members praised Adolf Hitler, and the clothing of choice at anti-immigrant protests was black T-shirts and combat trousers.

Witnesses told the trial that members were trained to handle weapons and used Nazi symbols.

There has been disgust at Golden Dawn across the political spectrum in Greece.

Centre-right Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote at the weekend of Greece's "traumatic, painful, and unfortunately, very bloody" experience of Golden Dawn, while ultimately praising the country's democratic success in getting rid of it both in parliament and daily life.