Panayiotis Kleovoulou, 63, will serve a 10-month sentence after Limassol District Court found him guilty of orchestrating a fascist attack against citizens during an event organised by progressive groups at Limassol’s University of Technology (Tepak) in 2017.
Kleovoulou, a lawyer and member of the far-right group Nationalist Liberation Movement (Eak), was found guilty on seven counts relating to the offences of rioting, causing or inciting violence, conspiracy to commit a crime, assault, causing actual bodily harm, disorderly conduct and public insult.
In his ruling, Judge Christos Raspopoulos noted, “This kind of behaviour has no place in a democratic society.”
The Court also stressed that Kleovoulou’s actions “fostered a spirit of mutual hate and intolerance.”
The attack took place on May 5, 2017, during an event organised by the “Leftist Movement – We Want Federation.”
Kleovoulou led a group of hooded men who attacked the crowd with baseball bats and stones. Kleovoulou himself had his face uncovered during the incident. Footage from the day shows him standing calm and watching while the hooded men attacked people. He is also seen grabbing a man by the neck and punching him in the face and head.
At the end of the attack, he is heard telling the hooded men “Stop, go.”
As they were fleeing, the attackers threw out Eak leaflets.
Kleovoulou ran for MEP in the 2014 EU Parliament Elections with far-right Elam who is currently the fourth largest party in the Cypriot Parliament.
