Supreme Court rejects petition to recuse judges examining whether Kasidiaris’ party

Greece’s Supreme Court on Sunday unanimously rejected a petition lodged by the National Party – Hellenes for the recusal of three judges in the A1 Section of the Supreme Court, which is responsible for examining whether political parties meet legal requirements for participation in the elections. National Party-Hellenes was founded by Ilias Kasidiaris, who was jailed over his role in the far-right criminal organisation Golden Dawn. On Saturday it asked that three of the judges in Section A1 be recused, based on press reports claiming that they had a preliminary meeting to prepare their reasoning for declining the party’s application. The court is now expected to announce which parties, coalitions and independent candidates will be able participate in the elections on Tuesday night.

Earlier, a lawyer representing Ilias Kasidiaris, Vaso Pantazi, announced that her office has submitted a memorandum to Section A1 of the Supreme Court arguing that recent amendments to election law are unconstitutional and should not be implemented. It also lodged a request that a pretrial query on this issue be submitted to the European Court of Human Rights and the European Union Court of Justice.