ATHENS – A verdict in the case against the leadership and dozens of members of the Golden Dawn party is scheduled for Oct. 5, some 5 ½ years after the trial began accusing them of running a criminal gang and the murder of rapper Pavlos Fyssas.

He sang against fascism and was stabbed to death after an altercation at a tavern, prosecutors charging a party member, Giorgos Roupakias with the killing and Fyssas' family making an impassioned plea for guilty verdicts.

“The time for the ruling has come. October 7, 2020 at 11 a.m. Seven torturous years since the murder of Pavlos, for us there is no other option than the conviction of the entire leadership of Golden Dawn’s criminal organization,” the family said in a statement when the trial finally ended on Sept. 4.

They asked for supporters to gather outside the courthouse when the judges will deliver their verdict in a massive case involving 68 defendants, party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and other former lawmakers ousted in July 7, 2019 snap elections.

Prosecutors have accused Golden Dawn of using neo-Nazi tactics to run a criminal operation, which the leaders denied, and of colluding in the killing of Fyssas and attacks on a group of Egyptian fishermen and Communist unionists during a rampage against migrants and ideological rivals in 2012 and 2013.