ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — A Greek doctor who posted a “Jews Not Welcome” sign outside his office was convicted and given a 16-month suspended jail sentence for inciting racial hatred.
Costas Kastaniotis, 57, a neurologist from Thessaloniki, also was convicted Friday in a court in the northern Greece city of illegally possessing weapons. He was fined $3,500.
Kastaniotis has appealed the sentence.
The doctor has denied posting the sign, which was written in German. However, police discovered pamphlets in his office linking him to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, which is known for its Nazi swastika-like flag and Holocaust-denying leadership.
Police also found three daggers and 12 knives at his home, as well as pills without prescriptions. Two of the daggers were engraved with Nazi symbols.
The Jewish community of Thessaloniki was an important center of Sephardic Jewry for 450 years following the expulsion from Spain. It had a pre-World War II Jewish population of 55,000; now about 1,000 Jews live there.
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