ATHENS — The transfer to prison of 37 convicted members of criminal Golden Dawn currently being held at the general police headquarters in Athens began on Friday. Two convicted members of the organisation, the European Parliament deputy Yiannis Lagos who has parliamentary immunity, and the fugitive former MP Christos Pappas, remain at large.

Two vans had already left the police headquarters on Friday afternoon, sources said. One was headed to Malandrinos prison carrying Giorgos Roupakis, who murdered Pavlos Fyssas, and Yiannis Kazantzoglou, who was with Roupakias in his car during the Fyssas killing, while a second took the only woman in the group, former police officer Venetia Popori, to the women's prison in Elaiona, Thiva.

The rest will be taken transferred in police vans with a strong escort, with 27 going to the prisons in Domokos, including all the leadership apart from Artemis Matthaiopoulos, who will go to Malandrinos with Roupakias, Kazantzoglou and Yiannis Aggos. Another five men in the group will be taken to Trikala prison.

There will also be a strict protocol to avoid the spread of Covid-19, with all the new inmates kept isolated from the general population in a special area in the three prisons for the first 14 days of their incarceration, while a test for SARS-Cov-2 will be carried out on each of them.