The head of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party formally established in 1985 Nikos Mihaloliakos, has been remanded in custody on charges of organising a criminal group. Mr Mihaloliakos faces charges including murder, assault and money-laundering.

He was arraigned before investigating magistrates at an Athens court in a hearing that lasted into the early hours of Thursday.

He was one of six MPs arrested at the weekend amid outrage over the murder of an anti-racist musician. Three of them have been freed pending trial while a fourth was remanded in custody.

The fact that three were freed pending trial will raise questions over how watertight the government's case against them actually is. In all, 22 people were detained the outcome of the18 September murder of Pavlos Fyssas.

Mr Mihaloliakos has been remanded in custody pending his full trial, which the authorities are keen to conclude very fast.

CEOAFRICA gathered that any MPs finally convicted would lose their seats in parliament, prompting by-elections and - the government hopes - leading to the destruction of Greece's neo-Nazi party.