Conviction of Jon Demjanjuk prompted the reopening of investigations against guards who worked in Holocaust extermination camps.
The criminal conviction of Nazi concentration guard John Demjanjuk in May prompted German prosecutors on Wednesday to reopen dozens of investigations and cases against guards who worked in the vast set of extermination camps during the Holocaust.
The German authorities announced the new prosecutions on Wednesday, according to media reports.
The 91-year-old Ukranianborn Demjanjuk was deported from the US to Germany in 2009. A Munich court convicted him in May of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder for working as a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Demjanjuk’s attorney has appealed the conviction.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Thursday hailed the decision by German prosecutors to open criminal investigations against dozens of former guards at Nazi concentration camps.
Efraim Zuroff, from the Wiesenthal Center, said he welcomed efforts to bring former guards to justice based on the precedent of John Demjanjuk, found guilty of being an accessory to murder for the time he was guarding Treblinka concentration camp.
Zuroff, who is widely considered to be world’s leading hunter of Nazis, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that “The Demjanjuk conviction has created the possibility to prosecute perhaps as many as several dozen Holocaust perpetrators who served in the most lethal Nazi installations and units, and basically spent as much as two years carrying out mass murder on practically a daily basis.
He added that “These were the persons who carried out the major bulk of the mass murder of European Jews during the Holocaust – practically half of the approximately six million Jewish victims.”
Kurt Schrimm, the head of the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Germany (Zentrale Stelle) said: “We don’t want to wait too long, so we’ve already begun our investigations,” according to a Guardian news report on Wednesday.
This item continues at Jewish World
Friday, 7 October 2011
BNP man faces gun charges (UK)
A former parish councillor and BNP activist has appeared in court on firearms charges.
The trial of David Lucas, 51, of South Road, Lakenheath, began at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday.
Lucas is charged with possessing a gun capable of firing flares 500ft into the air – labelled ‘potentially lethal’ by prosecutors. He is also charged with having ammunition for the gun which he purchased more than three years ago in Alaska.
On Wednesday, jurors were shown the orange gun, made largely from plastic, which still bears a $24.99 price sticker.
Martyn Levett, prosecuting, told the court that police had arrested Lucas after searching Black Dyke Farm, in Hockwold, on August 18 last year. Officers found the gun and ammunition on a shelf inside a portable building.
Experts examined the items and decided the gun and ammunition were, under the 1968 Firearms Act, items which required a firearms certificate to possessf.
Lucas, who admitted he did not hold a firearms certificate, challenged whether the items were covered by the Firearms Act and claims he was not holding them illegally.
Mr Levett said the gun, an Orion Signal Launcher, was found with 11 flares of a 12 bore size.
“If carelessly pointed at someone the effect would be potentially lethal,” he said.
He added that a second firearms expert had also examined the gun and agreed that it was covered by the Firearms Act.
Lucas stood as a BNP candidate in the European elections in 2009 and has previously served on Lakenheath Parish Council.
In June last year he was given a one year prison sentence suspended for one year for possessing ammunition and gunpowder.
The trial is expected to finish today.
Bury Free Press
The trial of David Lucas, 51, of South Road, Lakenheath, began at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday.
Lucas is charged with possessing a gun capable of firing flares 500ft into the air – labelled ‘potentially lethal’ by prosecutors. He is also charged with having ammunition for the gun which he purchased more than three years ago in Alaska.
On Wednesday, jurors were shown the orange gun, made largely from plastic, which still bears a $24.99 price sticker.
Martyn Levett, prosecuting, told the court that police had arrested Lucas after searching Black Dyke Farm, in Hockwold, on August 18 last year. Officers found the gun and ammunition on a shelf inside a portable building.
Experts examined the items and decided the gun and ammunition were, under the 1968 Firearms Act, items which required a firearms certificate to possessf.
Lucas, who admitted he did not hold a firearms certificate, challenged whether the items were covered by the Firearms Act and claims he was not holding them illegally.
Mr Levett said the gun, an Orion Signal Launcher, was found with 11 flares of a 12 bore size.
“If carelessly pointed at someone the effect would be potentially lethal,” he said.
He added that a second firearms expert had also examined the gun and agreed that it was covered by the Firearms Act.
Lucas stood as a BNP candidate in the European elections in 2009 and has previously served on Lakenheath Parish Council.
In June last year he was given a one year prison sentence suspended for one year for possessing ammunition and gunpowder.
The trial is expected to finish today.
Bury Free Press
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Judge orders house custody of far-right activist Budahazy (Hungary)
The municipal court of Budapest released radical nationalist activist Gyorgy Budahazy, who is accused of terrorist activities, from pre-trial detention and into house custody on Friday. The prosecutor appealed against the decision, but this appeal will not delay implementation of the ruling. Budahazy will be placed in house custody until the municipal appellate court rules in the second instance. In his reasoning, the judge said it was uncertain how long the procedure would go on and suggested that its aims could be achieved through house custody rather than pre-trial detention. Budahazy’s lawyer had appealed for his client’s release, referring to an professional opinion stating that the defendant’s two young daughters had not seen their father for two years, causing them an irreparable loss. He added that his client loved his homeland and family and would not go into hiding to evade the proceedings. Budahazy had been in custody since June 2009.
He was arrested under charges of setting up a gang – the Hunnia Movement modelling itself on the Irish Republican Army – in early 2007 to carry out attacks against members of parliament, thereby exerting pressure on lawmaking. Later that year the gang allegedly fired shots and threw petrol bombs at the homes of lawmakers Istvan Hiller and Janos Koka, as well as making similar attacks in several locations in the countryside in February 2008. The group also threw Molotov cocktails at gay bars and outlets, such as a ticket office in Budapest’s 13th district. The court is expected to resume hearing Budahazy’s case in November.
Politics.hu
He was arrested under charges of setting up a gang – the Hunnia Movement modelling itself on the Irish Republican Army – in early 2007 to carry out attacks against members of parliament, thereby exerting pressure on lawmaking. Later that year the gang allegedly fired shots and threw petrol bombs at the homes of lawmakers Istvan Hiller and Janos Koka, as well as making similar attacks in several locations in the countryside in February 2008. The group also threw Molotov cocktails at gay bars and outlets, such as a ticket office in Budapest’s 13th district. The court is expected to resume hearing Budahazy’s case in November.
Politics.hu
Ex EDL members targeted Hartlepool mosque and Shotton Colliery store (UK)
Two former English Defence League (EDL) members daubed “racially offensive” material on a mosque and two Asian-run businesses in revenge for the burning of poppies by an extreme Islamic group.
Steven James Vasey, 32, and 24-year-old Anthony Donald Smith were yesterday jailed for a year for their attack, which followed incidents at a war memorial in Luton on Armistice Day last November.
Days later, on the eve of the Muslim Eid festival to mark the end of Ramadan, the masked men, along with an accomplice, climbed a fence after dark at the Nasir Mosque, in Brougham Street, Hartlepool.
The initials EDL and NEI – North-East Infidels – as well as the words “no surrender”, the cross of St George and figures of red poppies, were sprayed before two figures were seen fleeing the premises.
Chris Baker, prosecuting at Durham Crown Court, said a taxi seen in the area at the time was similar to a vehicle spotted later in Potto Street, Shotton Colliery, County Durham, where an upstairs window at the Milco convenience store was put out with a brick.
Similar graffiti to that sprayed at the mosque was daubed at both the shop and the nearby Albert Guest House, in Front Street, both run by an Asian businessman.
Mr Baker told the court: “There’s a certain irony in that the targeted store was selling poppies at the time.”
He said Smith, who drove for the taxi company and had links to the EDL, was arrested the following day.
Messages found on his phone revealed him planning with Vasey and a third accused, Smith’s girlfriend at the time, Charlotte Christina Davies, who he met at an EDL rally in Amsterdam earlier in the year.
Mr Baker said the text messages included claims they were going “Muzzy bashing” and that the mosque was going to be given “a makeover”.
Vasey, formerly of Pittington, near Durham City, but now of Eden Crescent, Darlington; Smith, of Rydale Court, Trimdon Station, County Durham and Davies, 19, of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, all admitted conspiracy to commit racially aggravated criminal damage.
Shaun Dryden, for Vasey, said it had been a “foolish venture”.
Stephen Constantine, for Smith, said he had, “a lack of insight” into the consequences of his actions, which were caused through his outrage at the poppy burning.
Jane Waugh, for Davies, said her involvement was merely text messages encouraging Davies’ involvement.
Barristers for all three said they have now severed their ties with the EDL.
Jailing Vasey and Davies, Recorder William Lowe told them: “It’s said this was carried out for what some extremists did on Armistice Day in Luton, as seen on TV.
“It may be that was something these three had in mind, but it does not excuse this conduct. It’s the sort of behaviour from which those who are militant feed.”
Davies was given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, with 200-hours’ unpaid work.
Darlington and Stockton Times
Steven James Vasey, 32, and 24-year-old Anthony Donald Smith were yesterday jailed for a year for their attack, which followed incidents at a war memorial in Luton on Armistice Day last November.
Days later, on the eve of the Muslim Eid festival to mark the end of Ramadan, the masked men, along with an accomplice, climbed a fence after dark at the Nasir Mosque, in Brougham Street, Hartlepool.
The initials EDL and NEI – North-East Infidels – as well as the words “no surrender”, the cross of St George and figures of red poppies, were sprayed before two figures were seen fleeing the premises.
Chris Baker, prosecuting at Durham Crown Court, said a taxi seen in the area at the time was similar to a vehicle spotted later in Potto Street, Shotton Colliery, County Durham, where an upstairs window at the Milco convenience store was put out with a brick.
Similar graffiti to that sprayed at the mosque was daubed at both the shop and the nearby Albert Guest House, in Front Street, both run by an Asian businessman.
Mr Baker told the court: “There’s a certain irony in that the targeted store was selling poppies at the time.”
He said Smith, who drove for the taxi company and had links to the EDL, was arrested the following day.
Messages found on his phone revealed him planning with Vasey and a third accused, Smith’s girlfriend at the time, Charlotte Christina Davies, who he met at an EDL rally in Amsterdam earlier in the year.
Mr Baker said the text messages included claims they were going “Muzzy bashing” and that the mosque was going to be given “a makeover”.
Vasey, formerly of Pittington, near Durham City, but now of Eden Crescent, Darlington; Smith, of Rydale Court, Trimdon Station, County Durham and Davies, 19, of Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire, all admitted conspiracy to commit racially aggravated criminal damage.
Shaun Dryden, for Vasey, said it had been a “foolish venture”.
Stephen Constantine, for Smith, said he had, “a lack of insight” into the consequences of his actions, which were caused through his outrage at the poppy burning.
Jane Waugh, for Davies, said her involvement was merely text messages encouraging Davies’ involvement.
Barristers for all three said they have now severed their ties with the EDL.
Jailing Vasey and Davies, Recorder William Lowe told them: “It’s said this was carried out for what some extremists did on Armistice Day in Luton, as seen on TV.
“It may be that was something these three had in mind, but it does not excuse this conduct. It’s the sort of behaviour from which those who are militant feed.”
Davies was given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for a year, with 200-hours’ unpaid work.
Darlington and Stockton Times
Monday, 3 October 2011
Jobbik splinter party officially launched; returns focus to Roma (Hungary)
Several former leading members of Jobbik announced the official launching of a new splinter party on Friday, nol.hu reports.
The Magyar Főnix Mozgalom (Hungarian Phoenix Movement, MFM) was initially formed in April but was only registered with the courts on September 15.
MFM chairman Tibor József Biber, who was deputy chairman of Jobbik until 2008, told the press that the new party would provide an alternative with voters disillusioned with Jobbik, which he said had been “eroded” from inside.
While in August Bíber criticized Jobbik for excessively focusing on questions relating to Hungary’s Roma minority – which he said could lead to a “civil war” – the new party appears to be putting a high priority on the issue, making it one of the most prominent points in its founding declaration.
At the news conference Bíber said that none of the governments of Hungary formed since the political system change had managed to solve the serious problem of “ethnic crime” – which he said could be called “Gypsy crime,” and disproportionately impacted those living in the countryside.
He said the exact size of Hungary’s Roma population should be known before their problems can be solved. The party’s deputy chair, Anna Szöőr, added that it was in the interest of the Roma population to “admit” their ethnicity in the national census launched this past weekend, otherwise researchers would again be force to work with false statistical data.
Politics.hu
The Magyar Főnix Mozgalom (Hungarian Phoenix Movement, MFM) was initially formed in April but was only registered with the courts on September 15.
MFM chairman Tibor József Biber, who was deputy chairman of Jobbik until 2008, told the press that the new party would provide an alternative with voters disillusioned with Jobbik, which he said had been “eroded” from inside.
While in August Bíber criticized Jobbik for excessively focusing on questions relating to Hungary’s Roma minority – which he said could lead to a “civil war” – the new party appears to be putting a high priority on the issue, making it one of the most prominent points in its founding declaration.
At the news conference Bíber said that none of the governments of Hungary formed since the political system change had managed to solve the serious problem of “ethnic crime” – which he said could be called “Gypsy crime,” and disproportionately impacted those living in the countryside.
He said the exact size of Hungary’s Roma population should be known before their problems can be solved. The party’s deputy chair, Anna Szöőr, added that it was in the interest of the Roma population to “admit” their ethnicity in the national census launched this past weekend, otherwise researchers would again be force to work with false statistical data.
Politics.hu
Wilders' 'mentor' thinks he is exaggerating (Netherlands)
The 78-year-old statesman may look a little frail, but he still works full time. In his office overlooking the river Amstel, he reflects on the commotion his comments caused in the early 1990s.
“I mainly objected to the Dutch government’s slogan ‘Integration while keeping your cultural identity’. I thought it was ridiculous: if you integrate, you lose part of your identity. I said immigrants have to conform to the essential values of the Dutch culture."
Mentor
These values are: freedom of religion, the separation of church and state, freedom of speech, and sexual equality. Looking back, the comments were not all that shocking, says the former VVD leader. “Nevertheless, it caused a lot of commotion, but maybe it was necessary.”
Now, former fellow party member Geert Wilders is winning votes for his Freedom Party, which he set up in 2006 with extreme views against immigration and Islam. Mr Bolkestein is sometimes called his mentor, but says he does not share his views. “Wilders says things that are just not right and I think he totally exaggerates.”
Moroccans
Mr Bolkestein once suggested in a leaked private conversation that orthodox Jews should consider moving to Israel or the United States, because of the anti-Semitism amongst Moroccans. Mr Wilders says the opposite; it is the Moroccans that should leave the Netherlands.
Recently, Mr Bolkestein wrote a book about ‘dangerous ideas in politics’. The book explains how rash ideas that have not been tested in practice can lead to chaos, abuses and worse. Nevertheless, Mr Bolkestein does not think Mr Wilders’ ideas have much influence outside his supporters. Mr Wilders supports the current government in parliament, but does not have any executive power. “There is little chance that Moroccans will be deported en masse,” he says resolutely.
Burka ban
Mr Wilders repeatedly says the Netherlands threatens to be overrun by a “tsunami of Islamists”. But, says Mr Bolkestein, he is wrong. Birth rates among immigrants are falling fast. For instance, Turkish women are already having fewer children than Dutch women. Mr Bolkestein also stresses that Muslim women are doing well at university, clearly showing they are catching up with their Dutch counterparts.
However, there are still big problems concerning integration, such as the high unemployment and crime rates among immigrant youths as well as anti-Semitism and homophobia.
Mr Bolkestein disagrees with the recent introduction of a burka ban, an idea championed by Geert Wilders. The Netherlands is the third European country to introduce such a ban after France and Belgium. “A ban makes martyrs of the few burka wearers there are in the Netherlands. You should avoid that,” he says, knowing all too well that it was his own party that proposed the ban.
Radio Netherlands
Two Alberta men jailed for racially-motivated assaults (Canada)
Two Alberta men are going to jail after pleading guilty to their parts in a series of racially-motivated assaults in Edmonton earlier this year.
David Roger Goodman, 19, and James Andrew Brooks, 25, admitted on Friday to being among a group of four men who shouted racial slurs and attacked several black people in downtown Edmonton on February 12.
The accused admitted to distributing flyers that promoted a white supremacist group called "Blood and Honour." The men also admitted to going to several bars in the Whyte Avenue area and threatening black people with violence.
In one downtown bar the group sang Nazi-themed songs, shouted "White Power" and hassled non-white patrons and anyone who appeared to be homosexual, according to Crown prosecutors.
The Crown had alleged that on the evening of Feb. 12, Goodman attacked a black man, knocking him to the ground and punching him repeatedly. Brooks was alleged to have punched a young woman in the face while wearing a glove adorned with hard plastic knuckles.
Goodman was sentenced to 15 months in jail and 12 months probation after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal harassment, two counts of assault and causing a disturbance.
Brooks was given 13 months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal harassment, assault and assault with a weapon and causing a disturbance.
Two other men, Jason Anthony Anderson and Keith Virgil Decu, both 32, have been charged with criminal harassment, mischief, cause disturbance, and assault.
CTV
David Roger Goodman, 19, and James Andrew Brooks, 25, admitted on Friday to being among a group of four men who shouted racial slurs and attacked several black people in downtown Edmonton on February 12.
The accused admitted to distributing flyers that promoted a white supremacist group called "Blood and Honour." The men also admitted to going to several bars in the Whyte Avenue area and threatening black people with violence.
In one downtown bar the group sang Nazi-themed songs, shouted "White Power" and hassled non-white patrons and anyone who appeared to be homosexual, according to Crown prosecutors.
The Crown had alleged that on the evening of Feb. 12, Goodman attacked a black man, knocking him to the ground and punching him repeatedly. Brooks was alleged to have punched a young woman in the face while wearing a glove adorned with hard plastic knuckles.
Goodman was sentenced to 15 months in jail and 12 months probation after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal harassment, two counts of assault and causing a disturbance.
Brooks was given 13 months in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of criminal harassment, assault and assault with a weapon and causing a disturbance.
Two other men, Jason Anthony Anderson and Keith Virgil Decu, both 32, have been charged with criminal harassment, mischief, cause disturbance, and assault.
CTV
Still battling blackshirts (UK)
We still feel the threat of the far right here, in Tower Hamlets, where the Battle of Cable Street was fought 75 years ago
In the London borough of Tower Hamlets on Tuesday we will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. This was a momentous day in the history of London's East End, when Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts were driven out of the then mainly Jewish area by demonstrators whose slogan was "They shall not pass!". Joining us on this anniversary – one in which I will unveil the restored Battle of Cable Street mural – will be a veteran of that day, Max Levitas.
What I suspect unites the very different racial and religious communities in the historic diaspora that is Tower Hamlets is a sense of revulsion at bigotry and racism, wherever it comes from. This is why so many people came together recently to protest at the outrageous plan by the far right English Defence League to march through the same area that Mosley's blackshirts had been ejected from. With the support of local MPs, councillors and religious leaders, as well as many outside the borough, we persuaded the Metropolitan police and the home secretary to ban the march.
So I was shocked to read recently that Adrian Tudway, the police's national co-ordinator for domestic extremism, said he had formed the view that the EDL was not extreme after reading its website. According to the Guardian's report, Tudway sent an email in April, urging a Muslim group to open up a "line of dialogue" with the EDL. He wrote: "In terms of the position with EDL, the original stance stands, they are not extreme rightwing as a group, indeed, if you look at their published material on their website they are actively moving away from the right and violence with their mission statement. As we discussed last time, I really think you need to open a direct line of dialogue with them and redirect their activity?"
At best this shows alarming naivety. At worst it demonstrates a callous disregard for those who have been on the receiving end of EDL violence. Disturbingly this came from a man whose unit was charged with investigating any links between the rightwing Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik and the EDL. Breivik boasted of having 600 EDL supporters as Facebook friends and said in his deranged 1,500-word manifesto that he had spoken with EDL members and supporters. This information should surely have been sobering enough for Tudway, and encouraged him to venture beyond the EDL's website. Recently the Daily Mail exposed a stockpile of weaponry assembled by EDL members, which rather takes away from the idea that the organisation is a beacon of moderation.
In any event, if the EDL is on a journey of atonement why did the Met feel it necessary to deploy more than 3,000 officers in Tower Hamlets on the day the EDL had planned a march, despite the home secretary's ban?
What really links Breivik to the EDL is a corrosive Islamophobia, which to all intents and purposes is similar to the antisemitism that many experienced in my part of London in the last century. Not that this in any way excuses those who respond by twisting Islam into a fundamentalism that most in the community do not approve of and do not want. The trouble is, it would appear that the only focus for those attempting to tackle extremism in Britain through the government's Prevent programme are such people – while those who express similar sentiments on the far right are treated with kid gloves.
I was pleased then to see that Dan Hodges from the anti-fascism organisation Searchlight appreciates what really lies behind the EDL. He has said that the police should classify the EDL as extremist and linked to violence, and that they should spend more time and effort trying to thwart the group's plans. To that should be added recent comments by Zaheer Ahmad, of the National Association of Muslim Police, who noted that: "There is a strong perception in the Muslim communities that the police service does not take the threat of rightwing extremism seriously."
Here, in Tower Hamlets, we do take the EDL seriously. That is why, in the wake of repeated threats from that organisation, we want it reclassified as an extremist group, and banned from being allowed to march through our London borough again. That would be the best tribute of all to all those who drove Mosley and his blackshirts out of the East End so many years ago.
The Guardian
In the London borough of Tower Hamlets on Tuesday we will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. This was a momentous day in the history of London's East End, when Oswald Mosley and his blackshirts were driven out of the then mainly Jewish area by demonstrators whose slogan was "They shall not pass!". Joining us on this anniversary – one in which I will unveil the restored Battle of Cable Street mural – will be a veteran of that day, Max Levitas.
What I suspect unites the very different racial and religious communities in the historic diaspora that is Tower Hamlets is a sense of revulsion at bigotry and racism, wherever it comes from. This is why so many people came together recently to protest at the outrageous plan by the far right English Defence League to march through the same area that Mosley's blackshirts had been ejected from. With the support of local MPs, councillors and religious leaders, as well as many outside the borough, we persuaded the Metropolitan police and the home secretary to ban the march.
So I was shocked to read recently that Adrian Tudway, the police's national co-ordinator for domestic extremism, said he had formed the view that the EDL was not extreme after reading its website. According to the Guardian's report, Tudway sent an email in April, urging a Muslim group to open up a "line of dialogue" with the EDL. He wrote: "In terms of the position with EDL, the original stance stands, they are not extreme rightwing as a group, indeed, if you look at their published material on their website they are actively moving away from the right and violence with their mission statement. As we discussed last time, I really think you need to open a direct line of dialogue with them and redirect their activity?"
At best this shows alarming naivety. At worst it demonstrates a callous disregard for those who have been on the receiving end of EDL violence. Disturbingly this came from a man whose unit was charged with investigating any links between the rightwing Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik and the EDL. Breivik boasted of having 600 EDL supporters as Facebook friends and said in his deranged 1,500-word manifesto that he had spoken with EDL members and supporters. This information should surely have been sobering enough for Tudway, and encouraged him to venture beyond the EDL's website. Recently the Daily Mail exposed a stockpile of weaponry assembled by EDL members, which rather takes away from the idea that the organisation is a beacon of moderation.
In any event, if the EDL is on a journey of atonement why did the Met feel it necessary to deploy more than 3,000 officers in Tower Hamlets on the day the EDL had planned a march, despite the home secretary's ban?
What really links Breivik to the EDL is a corrosive Islamophobia, which to all intents and purposes is similar to the antisemitism that many experienced in my part of London in the last century. Not that this in any way excuses those who respond by twisting Islam into a fundamentalism that most in the community do not approve of and do not want. The trouble is, it would appear that the only focus for those attempting to tackle extremism in Britain through the government's Prevent programme are such people – while those who express similar sentiments on the far right are treated with kid gloves.
I was pleased then to see that Dan Hodges from the anti-fascism organisation Searchlight appreciates what really lies behind the EDL. He has said that the police should classify the EDL as extremist and linked to violence, and that they should spend more time and effort trying to thwart the group's plans. To that should be added recent comments by Zaheer Ahmad, of the National Association of Muslim Police, who noted that: "There is a strong perception in the Muslim communities that the police service does not take the threat of rightwing extremism seriously."
Here, in Tower Hamlets, we do take the EDL seriously. That is why, in the wake of repeated threats from that organisation, we want it reclassified as an extremist group, and banned from being allowed to march through our London borough again. That would be the best tribute of all to all those who drove Mosley and his blackshirts out of the East End so many years ago.
The Guardian
Serbia police detain 6 suspected extremists
Serbia's police say they have detained six people and prevented a gathering of a pro-Russian far-right group that threatened to burn an EU flag and spit on the portrait of the U.S. ambassador in Belgrade.
Riot police were deployed in large number across the capital Sunday to enforce a ban on a gay pride event and anti-gay protests, fearing they would turn violent.
Senior police official Srdjan Grekulovic says the six extremists were detained in central Belgrade with masks and baseball bats on them. He says police also prevented a protest on nearby Mount Avala by the Nasi group — an affiliate of a Russian organization of the same name.
Meanwhile, an EU official and other supporters attended an in-room gathering of gay activists.
AJC
Riot police were deployed in large number across the capital Sunday to enforce a ban on a gay pride event and anti-gay protests, fearing they would turn violent.
Senior police official Srdjan Grekulovic says the six extremists were detained in central Belgrade with masks and baseball bats on them. He says police also prevented a protest on nearby Mount Avala by the Nasi group — an affiliate of a Russian organization of the same name.
Meanwhile, an EU official and other supporters attended an in-room gathering of gay activists.
AJC
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Internet bigot Stephen Birrell facing prison term (UK)
A man is facing a jail term for posting sectarian comments about Catholics and Celtic fans on a Facebook page called "Neil Lennon Should be Banned".
Stephen Birrell, 28, from Gallowgate, Glasgow, admitted posting the religiously prejudiced abuse between 28 February and 8 March this year.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard how he was caught after a police crackdown on sectarian internet campaigns.
Sentence on Birrell was deferred and he was told to expect a prison term.
The court heard how Birrell committed the offences just days after being released earlier from a 12-month jail sentence.
Celtic abuse
Prosecutor Mark Allan told the court that a special team of officers began investigating hate comments on the internet after the so-called Old Firm "shame game" on 3 March this year.
Mr Allan said: "They came across a site called 'Neil Lennon Should Be Banned' and noted that the accused had made various comments on the Facebook page."
On 1 March, two days before the Old Firm match, Birrell posted: "Hope they (Celtic fans) all die. Simple. Catholic scumbags ha ha."
On 4 March, the day after the game, he wrote: "Proud to hate Fenian tattie farmers. Simple ha ha."
Four days later Birrell posted: "They're all ploughing the fields the dirty scumbags."
He also posted abuse directed at the Pope.
The court was told that the police traced Birrell to his then home in Dalmarnock on 23 April.
Deferring sentence for background reports, Sheriff Bill Totten told Birrell: "What you wrote was vile and hateful there is no place for these kind of remarks in our city or in our country."
Sheriff Totten told Birrell that his comments could encourage impressionable people to behave in this way and were unacceptable.
He added: "You should be under no doubt very real harm does result from this. A substantial custodial sentence will probably have to be imposed in this case."
The sheriff will also consider whether to ban Birrell from attending football matches.
BBC News
Stephen Birrell, 28, from Gallowgate, Glasgow, admitted posting the religiously prejudiced abuse between 28 February and 8 March this year.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard how he was caught after a police crackdown on sectarian internet campaigns.
Sentence on Birrell was deferred and he was told to expect a prison term.
The court heard how Birrell committed the offences just days after being released earlier from a 12-month jail sentence.
Celtic abuse
Prosecutor Mark Allan told the court that a special team of officers began investigating hate comments on the internet after the so-called Old Firm "shame game" on 3 March this year.
Mr Allan said: "They came across a site called 'Neil Lennon Should Be Banned' and noted that the accused had made various comments on the Facebook page."
On 1 March, two days before the Old Firm match, Birrell posted: "Hope they (Celtic fans) all die. Simple. Catholic scumbags ha ha."
On 4 March, the day after the game, he wrote: "Proud to hate Fenian tattie farmers. Simple ha ha."
Four days later Birrell posted: "They're all ploughing the fields the dirty scumbags."
He also posted abuse directed at the Pope.
The court was told that the police traced Birrell to his then home in Dalmarnock on 23 April.
Deferring sentence for background reports, Sheriff Bill Totten told Birrell: "What you wrote was vile and hateful there is no place for these kind of remarks in our city or in our country."
Sheriff Totten told Birrell that his comments could encourage impressionable people to behave in this way and were unacceptable.
He added: "You should be under no doubt very real harm does result from this. A substantial custodial sentence will probably have to be imposed in this case."
The sheriff will also consider whether to ban Birrell from attending football matches.
BBC News
A.J. man indicted in case of bombs meant for border (Neo-Nazi, USA)
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| Jeffrey Harbin |
Jeffrey Harbin, 28, pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court to possession of unregistered destructive devices and the unlawful transportation of explosive material.
Harbin will be sentenced Dec. 13 before Judge Neil Wake. He was charged with the crimes in January when he was pulled over in Apache Junction and officers discovered one of the grenade-like devices in his truck. After a search warrant was executed in his home, authorities discovered about a dozen of the devices.
Authorities say Harbin created them using polyvinyl chloride in a container filled with gunpowder, ball bearings and an improvised fusing system, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Harbin, who was a member of the neo-Nazi-linked National Alliance and formerly in the National Socialist Movement, had planned to take the bombs to the Mexico border, according to court documents. Authorities say used ball bearings to make them more dangerous.
According to authorities, Harbin was recruited into the National Socialist Movement by J.T. Ready, a former Mesa City Council candidate who leads patrols throughout Pinal County and other parts of Arizona in an effort to apprehend illegal immigrants. Ready says he no longer is a member.
The investigation leading up to Harbin’s indictment was led by the FBI and members of the Phoenix Joint Terrorism Task Force.
East Valley Tribune
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Wellington English Defence League demo cost police £342,500 (UK)
The cost of policing rallies by the English Defence League (EDL) and their opponents in a Shropshire town last month was £342,500.
The home secretary had banned a planned EDL march in Wellington amid fears of disorder but about 400 people from opposing groups still went to the town.
More than 40 people were arrested as rival groups clashed on 13 August.
A report to West Mercia Police Authority said £300,000 was spent on bringing in officers from other forces.
The match between AFC Telford United and Luton Town, due to be held on the same day in Telford, was also postponed because of fears of trouble.
The report by Chief Constable David Shaw said three police officers were assaulted during the clashes but none were seriously hurt.
BBC News
The home secretary had banned a planned EDL march in Wellington amid fears of disorder but about 400 people from opposing groups still went to the town.
More than 40 people were arrested as rival groups clashed on 13 August.
A report to West Mercia Police Authority said £300,000 was spent on bringing in officers from other forces.
The match between AFC Telford United and Luton Town, due to be held on the same day in Telford, was also postponed because of fears of trouble.
The report by Chief Constable David Shaw said three police officers were assaulted during the clashes but none were seriously hurt.
BBC News
Swiss MPs vote for burqa ban
Swiss MPs have approved a far-right move to impose a ban on the burqa or other face coverings in some public places, including on public transport.
With 101 votes against 77, the lower chamber of the house approved the motion, which was titled "masks off!", on Wednsday.
The draft bill will still have to be examined by the upper chamber.
Put forward by Oskar Freysinger, a politician of the Swiss far-right SVP party, the motion requires "anyone addressing a federal, cantonal or communal authority exercising his or her functions, to present themselves with their faces uncovered."
Burqas would also be banned on public transport, while "authorities can ban or restrict access to public buildings to such individuals in order to guarantee the security of other users."
Explaining the motion, Freysinger noted that "at a time when insecurity is growing in our streets, more and more people are hiding their faces behind a balaclava, a mask or a burqa.
"This makes it impossible to identify these people, a fact that is particularly troublesome in case of violence or identity checks," he noted.
France was the first European Union country to impose a ban on the burqa in public places, while Belgium joined it some months later.
On September 16, the Dutch government also agreed to a ban on the full Islamic veil under a deal with the far-right party of the anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders.
Sydney Morning Herald
With 101 votes against 77, the lower chamber of the house approved the motion, which was titled "masks off!", on Wednsday.
The draft bill will still have to be examined by the upper chamber.
Put forward by Oskar Freysinger, a politician of the Swiss far-right SVP party, the motion requires "anyone addressing a federal, cantonal or communal authority exercising his or her functions, to present themselves with their faces uncovered."
Burqas would also be banned on public transport, while "authorities can ban or restrict access to public buildings to such individuals in order to guarantee the security of other users."
Explaining the motion, Freysinger noted that "at a time when insecurity is growing in our streets, more and more people are hiding their faces behind a balaclava, a mask or a burqa.
"This makes it impossible to identify these people, a fact that is particularly troublesome in case of violence or identity checks," he noted.
France was the first European Union country to impose a ban on the burqa in public places, while Belgium joined it some months later.
On September 16, the Dutch government also agreed to a ban on the full Islamic veil under a deal with the far-right party of the anti-immigration MP Geert Wilders.
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Leading Jobbik figure assaulted by right-wing radical at rally (Hungary)
Zsolt Tyirityán, head of the radical right-wing Betyársereg group, struck Jobbik MP Előd Novák at a rally in Gyula on Saturday, sending his glasses flying and cutting his lip. After Tyirityán (left) demanded that Novák tell him why he had called him a jailbird, Novák said he condemns efforts by some in the Betyársereg to “make imprisonment a virtue”. Tyirityán then struck Novák. A brief scuffle developed between those at hand and members of Betyársereg.
Novák said he will not file a report, as the matter was resolved “within the house,” but the executive committee of Jobbik discussed it and decided to take action.
Novák said Jobbik and Betyársereg had not been allies, as there was “only peaceful coexistence” between them, adding “this will not be so from now on”.
Politics.hu
Novák said he will not file a report, as the matter was resolved “within the house,” but the executive committee of Jobbik discussed it and decided to take action.
Novák said Jobbik and Betyársereg had not been allies, as there was “only peaceful coexistence” between them, adding “this will not be so from now on”.
Politics.hu
Padiham mayor admits making racist remark (UK)
The mayor of Padiham has been ordered to undergo ethnicity training after admitting making a racist comment to a call centre worker.
Coun Bob Clark referred to a member of staff at Calico Housing as a 'bloody P...' during a conversation about a resident of the town who had been locked out of his home after losing his keys.
A standards committee hearing at Burnley Town Hall yesterday found that Coun Clark had breached the councillors Code of Conduct for failing to treat others with respect and had brought Padiham Town Council into disrepute.
Coun Clark could have faced a six-month suspension but the committee decided his previous good character and work for the town did not merit that punishment.
If he had been suspended it could have opened the door for deputy mayor BNP councillor John Cave taking over the role.
The committee, made up of independent chair Andrew Neville, parish representative Gill Smith and borough councillor Julie Cooper, ordered Coun Clark to write a letter of apology, which he had already done, and to undertake ethnicity and diversity training.
The complaint against Coun Clark followed a telephone conversation with Calico worker Hazif Rehman on March 10 this year.
This item continues at Burnley Citizen
Coun Bob Clark referred to a member of staff at Calico Housing as a 'bloody P...' during a conversation about a resident of the town who had been locked out of his home after losing his keys.
A standards committee hearing at Burnley Town Hall yesterday found that Coun Clark had breached the councillors Code of Conduct for failing to treat others with respect and had brought Padiham Town Council into disrepute.
Coun Clark could have faced a six-month suspension but the committee decided his previous good character and work for the town did not merit that punishment.
If he had been suspended it could have opened the door for deputy mayor BNP councillor John Cave taking over the role.
The committee, made up of independent chair Andrew Neville, parish representative Gill Smith and borough councillor Julie Cooper, ordered Coun Clark to write a letter of apology, which he had already done, and to undertake ethnicity and diversity training.
The complaint against Coun Clark followed a telephone conversation with Calico worker Hazif Rehman on March 10 this year.
This item continues at Burnley Citizen
BNP leader to seek support in Hastings (UK)
Controversial right-wing figure Nick Griffin is set to return to Hastings to rally support for the British National Party.
The much-maligned politician made a clandestine visit to 1066 Country back in 2008 amid much posturing from the party’s local branch which, at the time, was predicting electoral success at the then approaching local elections.
Mr Griffin spoke to BNP supporters at a meeting of Hastings-based members – with organisers taking the unusual step of meeting activists on a corner in Hollington and then leading them to a secret venue.
He spoke to the Observer and trumpeted his party’s plans to return Hastings to its former glories.
Speaking to the Observer, he said: “Tourists come visit the town expecting to see somewhere connected to 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. They are expecting an English seaside town - not what it has become now.”
His visit attracted a string of criticism – from the town’s then MP Michael Foster and a band of anti-fascists called Hastings United Against Fascism (HUAF), which organised a protest movement locally.
And, according to local sources, this particular political hot potato is set to kick-off again, with rumours suggesting Mr Griffin is pencilled in to speak at a meeting of the BNP on October 23 here in Hastings.
Nobody from the BNP was available to confirm the details, but a spokesman for HUAF said that if its members found out where the event was taking place, they would almost certainly mark the occasion with a protest.
Hastings Observer
The much-maligned politician made a clandestine visit to 1066 Country back in 2008 amid much posturing from the party’s local branch which, at the time, was predicting electoral success at the then approaching local elections.
Mr Griffin spoke to BNP supporters at a meeting of Hastings-based members – with organisers taking the unusual step of meeting activists on a corner in Hollington and then leading them to a secret venue.
He spoke to the Observer and trumpeted his party’s plans to return Hastings to its former glories.
Speaking to the Observer, he said: “Tourists come visit the town expecting to see somewhere connected to 1066 and the Battle of Hastings. They are expecting an English seaside town - not what it has become now.”
His visit attracted a string of criticism – from the town’s then MP Michael Foster and a band of anti-fascists called Hastings United Against Fascism (HUAF), which organised a protest movement locally.
And, according to local sources, this particular political hot potato is set to kick-off again, with rumours suggesting Mr Griffin is pencilled in to speak at a meeting of the BNP on October 23 here in Hastings.
Nobody from the BNP was available to confirm the details, but a spokesman for HUAF said that if its members found out where the event was taking place, they would almost certainly mark the occasion with a protest.
Hastings Observer
Friday, 23 September 2011
Norwegian Far Right MP Quits After Being Filmed With Latvian Prostitute
Bård Hoksrud, a representative for Norway's Progress Party, has stepped down from political duties after he was filmed soliciting sex from a Latvian prostitute, reports The Foreigner.
Hoksrud was in Latvia's capital, Riga last week with the Party's Youth Movement when he was filmed entering a brothel and leaving with a prostitute half an hour later.
The next day, cameramen from Norway's TV2 station entered the establishment where one prostitute confirmed that Hoksrud was her client, later stating that the two had sex.
Hoksrud denied this latter claim, but did confirm that he had paid the prostitute for services. And apparently at an above average rate.
The footage of Hoksrud leaving the brothel was aired on Norway's national television last night. It is the third major sex scandal to hit the far-right party after one prominent member was arrested last year for filming several young boys in his shower. Additionally, in 2001, Terje Søvikness, then the Mayor of Os, had sex with a 16-year-old girl at the Progress Party conference.
The Progress Party was also linked to the terror attacks carried out by Anders Breivik this summer, when it emerged that he had been a member of the far-right party from 1999 to 2004. Its leader, Siv Jensen was quick to distance her party from the attacks.
Business insider
Hoksrud was in Latvia's capital, Riga last week with the Party's Youth Movement when he was filmed entering a brothel and leaving with a prostitute half an hour later.
The next day, cameramen from Norway's TV2 station entered the establishment where one prostitute confirmed that Hoksrud was her client, later stating that the two had sex.
Hoksrud denied this latter claim, but did confirm that he had paid the prostitute for services. And apparently at an above average rate.
The footage of Hoksrud leaving the brothel was aired on Norway's national television last night. It is the third major sex scandal to hit the far-right party after one prominent member was arrested last year for filming several young boys in his shower. Additionally, in 2001, Terje Søvikness, then the Mayor of Os, had sex with a 16-year-old girl at the Progress Party conference.
The Progress Party was also linked to the terror attacks carried out by Anders Breivik this summer, when it emerged that he had been a member of the far-right party from 1999 to 2004. Its leader, Siv Jensen was quick to distance her party from the attacks.
Business insider
Thursday, 22 September 2011
Holocaust survivors protest far-right official (Czech Rep)
Czech Holocaust survivors are calling for the dismissal of a controversial senior education official who led a far-right party.
The Terezin Initiative, an organization of former Jewish prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, says Ladislav Batora should be fired because of his links to the far right scene "infamous for its anti-Semitic and xenophobic" views.
Batora denies he's an extremist. But he led a far-right party and praised an anti-Semitic book. He recently criticized U.S. ambassador Norman Eisen for his support of a gay pride parade in Prague.
Batora, the former director of the ministry's human resources department is a deputy head of Education Minister Josef Dobes' office.
The survivors also criticized President Vaclav Klaus on Tuesday for backing Batora.
Taiwan News
The Terezin Initiative, an organization of former Jewish prisoners of Nazi concentration camps, says Ladislav Batora should be fired because of his links to the far right scene "infamous for its anti-Semitic and xenophobic" views.
Batora denies he's an extremist. But he led a far-right party and praised an anti-Semitic book. He recently criticized U.S. ambassador Norman Eisen for his support of a gay pride parade in Prague.
Batora, the former director of the ministry's human resources department is a deputy head of Education Minister Josef Dobes' office.
The survivors also criticized President Vaclav Klaus on Tuesday for backing Batora.
Taiwan News
SWISS DECIDE NOT TO BAN NAZI SYMBOLS
The issue of Nazi symbols has come to the fore over the last decade as Swiss National Day celebrations on the Rütli on August 1st have increasingly been disrupted by right-wing extremists, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reports. The Rütli is a meadow above the slopes of Lake Lucerne in the Swiss canton of Uri where the oath of the Old Swiss Confederacy is remembered every year. There skinheads have openly displayed Nazi flags and symbols such as “SS”, a Nazi army emblem, and English sports brand Lonsdale, the middle letters of which stand for the first letters in the acronym for the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), the Nazi party in Germany from 1919 to 1945. After former government minister Kaspar Villiger was booed by a neo-Nazi mob during his speech on the Rütli on August 1st 2000, politicians called for action to close a legal loophole. The public use and dissemination of racist symbols has actually been forbidden in Switzerland since a new anti-racism law came into effect in 1995. However, a clause states that the display of offensive symbols is only banned when they are used to promote a corresponding ideology, a correlation that is often difficult to prove. For example, Nazi war flags cannot be confiscated at the Swiss border if the owner claims not to be spreading propaganda.
After the neo-Nazi provocation on the Rütli both the Federal Council and National Council, the lower house of parliament, voted for the proposed ban, while the majority of cantons and associations also voted in favour. The Swiss police officers' association at the time said they would welcome “the introduction of a tool to fight this phenomenon, which is poisoning our society and democracy”. The police association called for a clear identification of the symbols that should be banned and several cantons and parties agreed. However, the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and the FDP (Liberals) rejected the new legal provision on the grounds that it was not sufficiently clear. Then in 2010, the Federal Council also decided to renounce the new legal provision. The government said it was too difficult to exactly define which symbols should be banned because right-wing extremists not only use unambiguous symbols like the swastika or Nazi salute, but also other symbols and codes such as the number 88, a numeric repesentation of of the phrase “Heil Hitler”. “Such a new legal provision would lead to boundary issues between legal and illegal behaviour,” the government noted. These arguments and the reference to the existing anti-racism law won the politicians over and in June the National Council also rejected the proposed legal change. On Tuesday the Council of States, the upper house of parliament, followed suit.
Marcel Niggli, a professor of criminal law at the University of Freiburg, told the Tages-Anzeiger he believed the hands-off approach was “a scandal”. “With their resistance, the parliament has cemented the unsatisfactory legal situation and delegated responsibility to the police.” After the scenes on the Rütli, police in Canton Uri asked what action they could take against Nazi symbols. “A police officer must decide if someone is campaigning with a Nazi symbol or not,” Niggli said. That leads to a dilemma. If the police do nothing, they are accused of inaction, he said, whereas if they react they are seen to be suppressing freedom of expression. According to Niggli, it is possible to clearly define a law banning Nazi symbols such as the swastika, as Germany has done.
The Local Switzerland
After the neo-Nazi provocation on the Rütli both the Federal Council and National Council, the lower house of parliament, voted for the proposed ban, while the majority of cantons and associations also voted in favour. The Swiss police officers' association at the time said they would welcome “the introduction of a tool to fight this phenomenon, which is poisoning our society and democracy”. The police association called for a clear identification of the symbols that should be banned and several cantons and parties agreed. However, the far-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and the FDP (Liberals) rejected the new legal provision on the grounds that it was not sufficiently clear. Then in 2010, the Federal Council also decided to renounce the new legal provision. The government said it was too difficult to exactly define which symbols should be banned because right-wing extremists not only use unambiguous symbols like the swastika or Nazi salute, but also other symbols and codes such as the number 88, a numeric repesentation of of the phrase “Heil Hitler”. “Such a new legal provision would lead to boundary issues between legal and illegal behaviour,” the government noted. These arguments and the reference to the existing anti-racism law won the politicians over and in June the National Council also rejected the proposed legal change. On Tuesday the Council of States, the upper house of parliament, followed suit.
Marcel Niggli, a professor of criminal law at the University of Freiburg, told the Tages-Anzeiger he believed the hands-off approach was “a scandal”. “With their resistance, the parliament has cemented the unsatisfactory legal situation and delegated responsibility to the police.” After the scenes on the Rütli, police in Canton Uri asked what action they could take against Nazi symbols. “A police officer must decide if someone is campaigning with a Nazi symbol or not,” Niggli said. That leads to a dilemma. If the police do nothing, they are accused of inaction, he said, whereas if they react they are seen to be suppressing freedom of expression. According to Niggli, it is possible to clearly define a law banning Nazi symbols such as the swastika, as Germany has done.
The Local Switzerland
Germany Bans Largest Neo-Nazi Group
Germany has banned its largest neo-Nazi association, the HNG, which supports prisoners with far-right views and their families, the Interior Ministry said on Wednesday, the government's latest step to curb the influence of radical groups. The Help Organization for National Political Prisoners and their Families (HNG) is, say German authorities, a threat to society and works against the constitution. With the slogan "A front inside and outside," the HNG seeks to reinforce prisoners' right-wing views and motivate them to continue their struggle against the system, said the ministry. "It is no longer acceptable that imprisoned right-wing extremists are being strengthened by the HNG in their aggressive stance against the free, democratic order," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said in a statement. "By rejecting the democratic constitutional state and glorifying National Socialism, the HNG tried to keep right wing radical criminals in their own milieu," the ministry said.
The group, founded in 1979, has some 600 members. The ban follows raids in which police seized material from leading HNG members across Germany. Although far-right groups attract most support in the eastern states, where unemployment is high and prospects few, the raids took place in western states including Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Germany's domestic intelligence agency has said that far-right groups have in the last few years sought to use the financial crisis and euro zone debt crisis to prove that the capitalist system has failed. The ban comes two weeks after the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), which espouses the end of parliamentary democracy, regained seats in the state assembly of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is also represented in Saxony. Right wing groups in Germany, including the NPD, are more radical than populist, anti-immigration parties in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Sweden which have enjoyed greater success at the ballot box.
Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution describes the NPD as racist, anti-Semitic and revisionist and says its statements prove its inspiration comes from the Nazis. The party says the German constitution is a "diktat" imposed by victorious Western powers after World War Two. Germany has banned several right-wing groups in the last few years but critics say the government needs to do more to weed out extreme views which permeate society. "It is a sensible, if overdue, step to ban a criminal Organization like the HNG," said Anetta Kahane, head of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation which supports projects to boost civil society. "But we need to do more to educate people so that they can resist right-wing ideas. For example, judges and the police need to be educated to deal with extremists," she told Reuters. "The problem of neo-Nazis has not gone away." The police and judicial systems in several eastern German states have been condemned for failing to recognize and tackle the problem of neo-Nazi crime.
Reuters
The group, founded in 1979, has some 600 members. The ban follows raids in which police seized material from leading HNG members across Germany. Although far-right groups attract most support in the eastern states, where unemployment is high and prospects few, the raids took place in western states including Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Germany's domestic intelligence agency has said that far-right groups have in the last few years sought to use the financial crisis and euro zone debt crisis to prove that the capitalist system has failed. The ban comes two weeks after the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD), which espouses the end of parliamentary democracy, regained seats in the state assembly of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It is also represented in Saxony. Right wing groups in Germany, including the NPD, are more radical than populist, anti-immigration parties in the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Sweden which have enjoyed greater success at the ballot box.
Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution describes the NPD as racist, anti-Semitic and revisionist and says its statements prove its inspiration comes from the Nazis. The party says the German constitution is a "diktat" imposed by victorious Western powers after World War Two. Germany has banned several right-wing groups in the last few years but critics say the government needs to do more to weed out extreme views which permeate society. "It is a sensible, if overdue, step to ban a criminal Organization like the HNG," said Anetta Kahane, head of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation which supports projects to boost civil society. "But we need to do more to educate people so that they can resist right-wing ideas. For example, judges and the police need to be educated to deal with extremists," she told Reuters. "The problem of neo-Nazis has not gone away." The police and judicial systems in several eastern German states have been condemned for failing to recognize and tackle the problem of neo-Nazi crime.
Reuters
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