Bus driver guilty of racism.

The case received a lot of press back in April 2013, as one of the most prolific racist incidents in a country plagued by neo-nazi attacks against immigrants. A public bus driver in Thessaloniki made two immigrants of African descent get of his bus during a routine route.

The driver claims the reason he did it was because he realized the two passengers were stowaways. The jury didn't buy it. A group of lawyers sued the driver for racist behavior and the case was in court on Monday.

Testifying, one of the witnesses said that the driver not only revealed that he was a supporter of neo-nazi Golden Dawn party, but he verbally attacked passengers annoyed by his initiative. She also mentioned that he was wearing a medallion with the party's symbol around his neck.

In his defense, the driver claimed that he personally checked the two passengers and they had no tickets. He refuted the witness saying the incident she described never took place. In order to prove his claim, he even presented a foreigner as witness in his defense.

The court found him guilty of service denial for reasons of racist behavior, sentencing him to ten month imprisonment on parole and a 1000 euros fine.

After Golden Dawn members' indictment last year, the Greek judiciary has turned on the screw on cases of racist behavior. It might not be particularly effective in everyday racist attitude towards immigrants, but it is a change from the apathy with which it treated similar cases in the past.