A Greek court on Wednesday handed a 13-year prison sentence to the leader of neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn for running a criminal organisation disguised as a political party. As well as Nikos Michaloliakos, the party's founder -- who received an additional one year for illegal possession of a weapon -- the court also sentenced five former members of his inner circle to prison terms on the criminal organisation charge. They included current independent European Parliament member Ioannis Lagos. Greek judicial authorities must send a request to the European parliament for Lagos' immunity to be lifted. The court also gave a life sentence to the Golden Dawn member who murdered anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas in 2013, the act that sparked the investigation into the paramilitary group. The Golden Dawn trial, which began in 2015, has been described as one of the most important in Greece's political history. More than 50 defendants were convicted of crimes ranging from running a criminal organisation, murder and assault to illegal weapons possession. During the trial, prosecutors told the court that Michaloliakos -- a Holocaust denier and former protege of Greek dictator Georgios Papadopoulos -- ran his party under a military-style hierarchy modelled on Hitler's Nazi party, with himself as leader for over three decades. A search of party members' homes in 2013 uncovered firearms and other weapons, as well as Nazi memorabilia. Tapping into anti-austerity and anti-migrant anger during Greece's decade-long debt crisis, Golden Dawn for a time was the third most popular party in the country. The party was in parliament from 2012 onwards, with its lawmakers repeatedly shocking the chamber with provocative and aggressive behaviour. It failed to win a single seat in last year's parliamentary election. hec-jph/wdb