A Greek court has ruled that the far-right Golden Dawn party was operating as a criminal organisation, delivering a landmark verdict in a marathon five-year trial. The court on Wednesday delivered guilty verdicts against several of the party's former lawmakers for participating in a criminal organization, and deemed others guilty of leading a criminal organisation.

The 68 defendants in the trial include 18 former lawmakers from the party that was founded in the 1980s as a neo-Nazi organization and rose to become Greece's third largest party in parliament during the country's decade-long financial crisis.