<p>BRUSSELS — A Greek far-right member of the European Parliament refused Wednesday to be extradited from Belgium to Greece to serve a 13-year prison sentence for being a high-ranking member of a criminal organization, the Brussels prosecutor’s office said.</p>
<p>Ioannis Lagos has been living in the Belgian capital, Brussels, since a Greek court in October convicted him and 17 other former Greek parliament members from the extreme-right Golden Dawn party of leading a criminal organization, or being members in it.</p>
<p>Lagos was taken into custody on Tuesday after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-217ed331caa6408921e2fc12afd976ef">the European Parliament voted to remove his immunity</a>, paving the way for him to be sent to Athens on a European arrest warrant. He appeared before a Belgian judge on Wednesday morning.</p>
<p>The Brussels prosecutor’s office said in a statement that Lagos “did not accept to be handed over to the Greek authorities. The judge decided to place him in detention.”</p>
<p>It said the court will decide within the next 15 days whether Lagos should be extradited.</p>
<p>Golden Dawn was founded as a Nazi-inspired group in the 1980s. It saw a surge in popularity during Greece’s 2010-2018 financial crisis, gaining parliamentary representation between 2012 and 2019.</p>
<p>The five-year trial was launched following the 2013 murder of rapper and left-wing activist Pavlos Fyssas, who was stabbed to death by a Golden Dawn supporter.</p>
<p>The other convicted Golden Dawn members are already in jail, except for one who escaped and is officially a fugitive.</p>
