A Greek court ruled on Wednesday that the leadership and members of ultra-Right party Golden Dawn (GD-Chryssi Avghi in Greek), the third largest political party in the parliament until last year, are guilty of operating as a criminal organization, Greek national broadcaster ERT reported.

Presiding judge of the Athens Criminal Appeals Court Maria Lepeniotou announced that GD was running as a criminal gang, systematically attacking migrants and political opponents for years until the fatal stabbing of Pavlos Fyssas, a 34-year-old Greek anti-fascist activist musician, by Yorgos Roupakias, a GD supporter, at a Piraeus port suburb in autumn 2013.

The murder sent shockwaves across the country and triggered a judicial crackdown on Golden Dawn.

It is expected to take several hours to determine sentencing for the defendants, as 68 persons stood trial (one died during the process), including the party's leader and dozens of former MPs and leading members, as appeals for reduced terms will be made.

GD leader Nikos Michaloliakos and others face five to 15 years of imprisonment while other members' convictions are on charges ranging from murder to extortion.

The long-awaited verdict in the trial that started in the spring of 2015 is considered as historic, closing a painful chapter in the country's history, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and other political party leaders said in statements to Greek daily "Efimerida Syntakton" (Editors' Journal) a few days ago.

It is expected to determine the fate of a political party that was elected to the Greek and European parliaments many times since 2012, riding on the wave of discontent over harsh austerity imposed to address a severe debt crisis which brought Greece to the brink of bankruptcy.

Following Greece's exit from the harsh bailout period in 2018, the party, which was founded as a marginal group in the 1980s, failed to enter the parliament in the 2019 general elections and has been losing clout since then.

"The trial is one of the largest in Greece's recent history. It is of great importance. It revealed to Greek society how this neo-Nazi group was operating using systematically raw violence, behind the facade of a political party," Xenophon Contiades, professor of Public and Social Law at the University of Peloponnese, said on ERT Wednesday.

More than 2,000 police officers were deployed around the courthouse Wednesday as some 20,000 protestors joined rallies organized by Leftist parties, migrants' associations and trade unions, according to police estimates, awaiting the ruling, amidst concern that in case of an acquittal there could be violent incidents.

Minor scuffles between a small group of protesters and police were reported by ERT once the ruling was announced as the crowd was cheering for the verdict.

"It is time all neo-Nazi killers are imprisoned," people chanted.