A Greek court sentenced the leadership of the extreme-right Golden Dawn party to 13 years in prison Wednesday, imposing the near-maximum penalty for running a criminal organization blamed for numerous violent hate crimes.

Presiding judge Maria Lepenioti read out the sentences against party leader Nikos Michaloliakos and seven other former lawmakers.

The landmark ruling follows a five-year trial of dozens of top officials, members and supporters of Golden Dawn, an organization founded as a neo-Nazi group in the 1980s that rose to become Greece’s third-largest political during a major financial crisis in the previous decade.

Magda Fyssa, center, the mother of late Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas, who was stabbed and killed by a supporter of the extreme right Golden Dawn party in 2013 triggering a crackdown on the party, walks into the court for the sentencing announcement of the Golden Dawn trial, in Athens, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. The lengthy sentencing procedure is the final chapter in a more than five-year politically charged trial that encompassed four cases and involved 68 defendants, more than 200 witnesses and over 60 lawyers.(AP PhotoThanassis Stavrakis)

Magda Fyssa, center, the mother of late Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas, who was stabbed and killed by a supporter of the extreme right Golden Dawn party in 2013 triggering a crackdown on the party, walks into the court for the sentencing announcement of the Golden Dawn trial, in Athens, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. The lengthy sentencing procedure is the final chapter in a more than five-year politically charged trial that encompassed four cases and involved 68 defendants, more than 200 witnesses and over 60 lawyers.(AP PhotoThanassis Stavrakis)

Eleven other former parliament members were jailed for between five and seven years for membership of a criminal organization, while a party associate was given a life sentence for the murder of Greek rap singer Pavlos Fyssas in a 2013 attack that triggered the crackdown against the party.

Arrests will be carried out after the court hears final arguments for probation considerations.

An anti-fascist protester, waring a mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, gathers outside the court in Athens where the the sentencing announcement of the Golden Dawn trial, was schedule to be held, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. The lengthy sentencing procedure is the final chapter in a more than five-year politically charged trial that encompassed four cases and involved 68 defendants, more than 200 witnesses and over 60 lawyers. The mask reads in Greek: 'Theyare not innocent, Nazis to prison'.(AP PhotoThanassis Stavrakis)

An anti-fascist protester, waring a mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, gathers outside the court in Athens where the the sentencing announcement of the Golden Dawn trial, was schedule to be held, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. The lengthy sentencing procedure is the final chapter in a more than five-year politically charged trial that encompassed four cases and involved 68 defendants, more than 200 witnesses and over 60 lawyers. The mask reads in Greek: 'Theyare not innocent, Nazis to prison'.(AP PhotoThanassis Stavrakis)