Investigations in the Volga region city of Yoshkar-Ola have charged the head of a local Jehovah's Witness branch with inciting religious hatred, local investigators said on Wednesday.
The coordinator of the city's Jehovah's Witness church, which is estimated to have some 90 followers, is accused of disseminating extremist materials and conducting public sermons on the superiority of the religion over others.
Investigators say a large volume of materials was seized during searches. Experts established that two books and two brochures contain "slogans of an extremist nature."
The Jehovah's Witnesses, which has some 7 million followers worldwide and 300,000 in Russia, are banned in a number of Russian regions and in some former Soviet republics.
The Jehovah's Witnesses branch in Moscow was dissolved by district court ruling in 2004, but the European Court of Human Rights declared the decision illegal last June.
RIA Novosti
Thursday, 19 May 2011
Document: Boy says neo-Nazi dad hit him, step-mom (USA)
A 10-year-old boy charged with murdering his white supremacist father told investigators that he shot the man after growing tired of him hitting him and his stepmother, court documents showed on Wednesday.
In the hours after the shooting, the boy told investigators he thought Jeff Hall, 32, was cheating on his stepmother and that he might have to choose who to live with, according to a police declaration filed in Riverside County.
The blonde-haired boy from Southern California told investigators he went into his parents' closet, pulled a revolver off a low shelf, went downstairs and aimed the gun at his father's ear while he was asleep and shot him. He later hid the gun under his bed, according to court documents.
"It was right there on the shelf," the boy told investigators, according to the police declaration filed Tuesday in support of an arrest warrant for his stepmother Krista McCary on nine felony charges of child endangerment and criminal storage of a gun.
A phone number for McCary, 26, could not be immediately located.
The declaration was made public on the same day that the boy — whom The Associated Press is not identifying and is not being charged as an adult — appeared in juvenile court for a hearing on the charge that he murdered Hall, a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement who led rallies at day labor sites and a local synagogue.
At the hearing, the juvenile court appointed a psychologist to advise the boy's defense attorney about his client's mental state. Deputy Public Defender Matt Hardy declined to comment on the allegations of abuse except to say that he was "exploring everything" in his defense of the boy.
The boy did not enter a plea and will return to court July 22.
McCary did not attend the boy's hearing Wednesday.
According to the police declaration filed in the case against McCary, Hall's dead body was found on the couch with a gunshot wound to the left side of his head on Sunday May 1.
In the hours after the shooting, McCary told investigators that Hall hit, kicked and yelled at his son to punish him for being too loud or getting in his way. She said he had also been violent against her and pushed and spanked the boy's younger sisters, the declaration said.
McCary also told detectives that Hall had taken his son target shooting when they went on a trip to the border, so he knew how to shoot guns, and "admitted that the revolver was on a low shelf where the kids had access to it," the declaration said.
"Those children knew where that gun was and they could reach it," said Ambrosio E. Rodriguez, senior deputy district attorney who is prosecuting the boy's murder case.
Investigators said the house located in a tidy cul-de-sac in the suburbs 60 miles east of Los Angeles was filthy, with dirty clothing covering the floors and a stench of urine in the bedrooms. Empty beer bottles were strewn across the downstairs and National Socialist Movement and California flags were hanging in the living room.
In the garage, investigators found a .22 caliber rifle leaning against a wall and an unlocked cabinet about 10 feet away with ammunition.
Investigators reported that three of the five children living in the home knew where the couple kept their gun.
The boy's four sisters were placed in protective custody following the shooting.
Hall — who said he was proud to fly the swastika and believed in a white breakaway nation — was widely known in Riverside for organizing neo-Nazi protests and his failed bid last year for a seat on the local water board. His candidacy frightened many residents in the suburban region, which experts say has seen a rise in hate groups.
Court records show Hall and his ex-wife Leticia Neal slugged through a divorce and dispute over the custody of their two children nearly a decade ago. Each accused the other of child abuse. In 2003, the boy and his sister were removed from Neal's home when her 3-month-old twins by another father were hospitalized for failing to thrive.
Hall's children had bruises and injuries but social workers could not determine their origin or the extent of any abuse.
Hall was granted custody of the children in 2004.
Last year, Neal filed for joint custody, saying Hall's neo-Nazi ties made her "scared of what will happen to my kids."
Hall opposed the request, noting the children had not received a call from their mother in six years and were now doing better in classes and participating in after-school activities, according to court filings in the custody case.
The boy was being taught at home as a pupil of the River Springs Charter School.
The day before Jeff Hall's death, he held a regular meeting of members of the National Socialist Movement at his home.
Google Hosted News
In the hours after the shooting, the boy told investigators he thought Jeff Hall, 32, was cheating on his stepmother and that he might have to choose who to live with, according to a police declaration filed in Riverside County.
The blonde-haired boy from Southern California told investigators he went into his parents' closet, pulled a revolver off a low shelf, went downstairs and aimed the gun at his father's ear while he was asleep and shot him. He later hid the gun under his bed, according to court documents.
"It was right there on the shelf," the boy told investigators, according to the police declaration filed Tuesday in support of an arrest warrant for his stepmother Krista McCary on nine felony charges of child endangerment and criminal storage of a gun.
A phone number for McCary, 26, could not be immediately located.
The declaration was made public on the same day that the boy — whom The Associated Press is not identifying and is not being charged as an adult — appeared in juvenile court for a hearing on the charge that he murdered Hall, a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement who led rallies at day labor sites and a local synagogue.
At the hearing, the juvenile court appointed a psychologist to advise the boy's defense attorney about his client's mental state. Deputy Public Defender Matt Hardy declined to comment on the allegations of abuse except to say that he was "exploring everything" in his defense of the boy.
The boy did not enter a plea and will return to court July 22.
McCary did not attend the boy's hearing Wednesday.
According to the police declaration filed in the case against McCary, Hall's dead body was found on the couch with a gunshot wound to the left side of his head on Sunday May 1.
In the hours after the shooting, McCary told investigators that Hall hit, kicked and yelled at his son to punish him for being too loud or getting in his way. She said he had also been violent against her and pushed and spanked the boy's younger sisters, the declaration said.
McCary also told detectives that Hall had taken his son target shooting when they went on a trip to the border, so he knew how to shoot guns, and "admitted that the revolver was on a low shelf where the kids had access to it," the declaration said.
"Those children knew where that gun was and they could reach it," said Ambrosio E. Rodriguez, senior deputy district attorney who is prosecuting the boy's murder case.
Investigators said the house located in a tidy cul-de-sac in the suburbs 60 miles east of Los Angeles was filthy, with dirty clothing covering the floors and a stench of urine in the bedrooms. Empty beer bottles were strewn across the downstairs and National Socialist Movement and California flags were hanging in the living room.
In the garage, investigators found a .22 caliber rifle leaning against a wall and an unlocked cabinet about 10 feet away with ammunition.
Investigators reported that three of the five children living in the home knew where the couple kept their gun.
The boy's four sisters were placed in protective custody following the shooting.
Hall — who said he was proud to fly the swastika and believed in a white breakaway nation — was widely known in Riverside for organizing neo-Nazi protests and his failed bid last year for a seat on the local water board. His candidacy frightened many residents in the suburban region, which experts say has seen a rise in hate groups.
Court records show Hall and his ex-wife Leticia Neal slugged through a divorce and dispute over the custody of their two children nearly a decade ago. Each accused the other of child abuse. In 2003, the boy and his sister were removed from Neal's home when her 3-month-old twins by another father were hospitalized for failing to thrive.
Hall's children had bruises and injuries but social workers could not determine their origin or the extent of any abuse.
Hall was granted custody of the children in 2004.
Last year, Neal filed for joint custody, saying Hall's neo-Nazi ties made her "scared of what will happen to my kids."
Hall opposed the request, noting the children had not received a call from their mother in six years and were now doing better in classes and participating in after-school activities, according to court filings in the custody case.
The boy was being taught at home as a pupil of the River Springs Charter School.
The day before Jeff Hall's death, he held a regular meeting of members of the National Socialist Movement at his home.
Google Hosted News
Notorious Auschwitz sign repaired after 2009 theft
The notorious sign spanning Auschwitz's main gate, which was stolen and cut into pieces in a 2009 heist, has been welded back together and restored almost to its previous condition, officials said Wednesday.
Conservation workers at the site of the former Nazi death camp said they have worked for nearly a year and a half photographing, analyzing and finally welding back together the pieces of the badly damaged sign bearing the cynical Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free).
The theft — which occurred on a bitterly cold night in December 2009 — shocked Holocaust survivors and many others committed to preserving the Auschwitz-Birkenau site and the memory of the atrocities that Nazi Germany committed there during its occupation of Poland.
"The theft and destruction of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign was a symbolic attack on remembrance," Piotr Cywinski, the director of the memorial site in southern Poland, said on Wednesday in announcing the completed restoration.
"The perpetrators nearly achieved their heinous goal, but they did not succeed."
Agnieszka Zydzik-Bialek, who led the conservation work, said the sign was in very bad shape when it arrived in her workshop. The thieves had not only cut it into pieces, they also had bent and fractured its metal tubes, she said.
Experts had to reverse not only the bent metal, but also "twisting and crushing," she said. "Many of the components were deformed, and the surface of the sign was scratched and dented."
Officials at the site said the restored sign will probably be eventually moved to an exhibition hall which is under development, but a final decision has not been made.
A replica of the sign presently stands in its place.
After the sign was stolen, police found it three days later cut into pieces in a forest on the other side of Poland.
A Swedish man with neo-Nazi ties, Anders Hogstrom, was found guilty of instigating the theft and is now jailed in his homeland. Five Poles also have been convicted of involvement and imprisoned.
Still, many questions surround the motive for the crime. There has been speculation that the group might have stolen the sign on behalf of a collector, but Polish officials investigating the case have never divulged all the details, citing an ongoing investigation.
Between 1940 and 1945 more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, or died of starvation or disease while forced to perform hard physical labor at the camp.
Google Hosted news
Conservation workers at the site of the former Nazi death camp said they have worked for nearly a year and a half photographing, analyzing and finally welding back together the pieces of the badly damaged sign bearing the cynical Nazi slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Sets You Free).
The theft — which occurred on a bitterly cold night in December 2009 — shocked Holocaust survivors and many others committed to preserving the Auschwitz-Birkenau site and the memory of the atrocities that Nazi Germany committed there during its occupation of Poland.
"The theft and destruction of the Arbeit Macht Frei sign was a symbolic attack on remembrance," Piotr Cywinski, the director of the memorial site in southern Poland, said on Wednesday in announcing the completed restoration.
"The perpetrators nearly achieved their heinous goal, but they did not succeed."
Agnieszka Zydzik-Bialek, who led the conservation work, said the sign was in very bad shape when it arrived in her workshop. The thieves had not only cut it into pieces, they also had bent and fractured its metal tubes, she said.
Experts had to reverse not only the bent metal, but also "twisting and crushing," she said. "Many of the components were deformed, and the surface of the sign was scratched and dented."
Officials at the site said the restored sign will probably be eventually moved to an exhibition hall which is under development, but a final decision has not been made.
A replica of the sign presently stands in its place.
After the sign was stolen, police found it three days later cut into pieces in a forest on the other side of Poland.
A Swedish man with neo-Nazi ties, Anders Hogstrom, was found guilty of instigating the theft and is now jailed in his homeland. Five Poles also have been convicted of involvement and imprisoned.
Still, many questions surround the motive for the crime. There has been speculation that the group might have stolen the sign on behalf of a collector, but Polish officials investigating the case have never divulged all the details, citing an ongoing investigation.
Between 1940 and 1945 more than 1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, or died of starvation or disease while forced to perform hard physical labor at the camp.
Google Hosted news
Far-right Catalans making waves across crisis-hit Spain
It's a blunt campaign message - a video shows three attractive young women in miniskirts skipping with a rope in the Spanish city of Igualada, to the accompaniment of a traditional Catalan folk song. Suddenly, the image changes to "Igualada 2015" and shows three women dressed in burkas skipping to the rhythm of an Arab song.
"You can avoid this nightmare becoming reality. In Igualada, vote Plataforma per Catalunya," the video concludes.
Plataforma per Catalunya is a far-right party created nine years ago by former supporters of General Francisco Franco in the north-eastern industrial province of Catalonia, and running in Sunday's regional elections in Spain.
Last year the party gained almost 3 per cent of the vote in the regional elections and now expects to increase its local vote five-fold, going from 17 to more than 100 council members across Catalonia and possibly winning control of some cities.
Plataforma per Catalunya is riding a growing wave of anti-immigration sentiment, where many blame foreigners - 12 per cent of the Spanish population - for rising crime and a lack of jobs, in a country with 20 per cent official unemployment.
"We didn't have much money so I did this video to create an impact, but I never imagined the huge reaction it would provoke," Roberto Hernando, the party's number two candidate and director of the video, told The Scotsman yesterday.
"We keep getting e-mails and letters from people across Spain begging us to expand nationally.
"With this crisis we shouldn't allow more immigrants into the country, especially Muslims who want to impose their culture upon others."
Along with many people from the poorer South American countries, Spain has seen an influx of immigrants from north African countries such as Morocco.
Mr Hernando says his party is in close touch with other European extremists, including Austria's FPO led by Heinz-Christian Strache, Filip Dewinter from the Belgian Vlaams Belang party and the Italian Northern League, with the idea of forming a unified force in Europe in the future.
But he prefers not to comment on the Francoist past of his party's leader, Josep Anglada, a former disciple of fascist figure Blas Piñar, or the resignation of the party's former secretary-general in 2003 after accusing Mr Anglada of having links with neo-Nazi groups.
This past has not prevented the Plataforma per Catalunya from growing in Catalonia to the point that Spain's main opposition, the conservative Popular Party (PP), has adopted an anti-immigration platform in some cities to stave off its challenge.
This item continues at the Scotsman
"You can avoid this nightmare becoming reality. In Igualada, vote Plataforma per Catalunya," the video concludes.
Plataforma per Catalunya is a far-right party created nine years ago by former supporters of General Francisco Franco in the north-eastern industrial province of Catalonia, and running in Sunday's regional elections in Spain.
Last year the party gained almost 3 per cent of the vote in the regional elections and now expects to increase its local vote five-fold, going from 17 to more than 100 council members across Catalonia and possibly winning control of some cities.
Plataforma per Catalunya is riding a growing wave of anti-immigration sentiment, where many blame foreigners - 12 per cent of the Spanish population - for rising crime and a lack of jobs, in a country with 20 per cent official unemployment.
"We didn't have much money so I did this video to create an impact, but I never imagined the huge reaction it would provoke," Roberto Hernando, the party's number two candidate and director of the video, told The Scotsman yesterday.
"We keep getting e-mails and letters from people across Spain begging us to expand nationally.
"With this crisis we shouldn't allow more immigrants into the country, especially Muslims who want to impose their culture upon others."
Along with many people from the poorer South American countries, Spain has seen an influx of immigrants from north African countries such as Morocco.
Mr Hernando says his party is in close touch with other European extremists, including Austria's FPO led by Heinz-Christian Strache, Filip Dewinter from the Belgian Vlaams Belang party and the Italian Northern League, with the idea of forming a unified force in Europe in the future.
But he prefers not to comment on the Francoist past of his party's leader, Josep Anglada, a former disciple of fascist figure Blas Piñar, or the resignation of the party's former secretary-general in 2003 after accusing Mr Anglada of having links with neo-Nazi groups.
This past has not prevented the Plataforma per Catalunya from growing in Catalonia to the point that Spain's main opposition, the conservative Popular Party (PP), has adopted an anti-immigration platform in some cities to stave off its challenge.
This item continues at the Scotsman
Scotland: hate crime figures rise to highest in five years
Religious and racist bigots will face zero intolerance, warn country's first minister and solicitor general
One of Scotland's most senior prosecutors has said there will be "zero tolerance" of religious and racist bigots after the latest hate crime figures showed a 10% increase in charges for sectarianism.
Frank Mulholland QC, the solicitor general, said religious bigotry was being tackled by an "extremely robust" prosecution policy after the number of cases reported to prosecutors increased to nearly 700 last year, the highest level in five years.
The latest statistics, which also showed that charges of racism reported to prosecutors fell by 3.6% to 4,165, follows the dramatic escalation in sectarian attacks and disputes in recent months centred on Glasgow's Celtic and Rangers football clubs.
Two men were arrested last week for explosives offences after allegedly being involved in a parcel bombing campaign against Celtic manager Neil Lennon and other prominent Catholics, including Lennon's lawyer, and an Irish republican group.
Rangers and Celtic fans are being prosecuted for alleged bigotry and racist offences on the internet and at football matches.
Earlier this week it emerged that the former Rangers' director and prominent lawyer Donald Findlay QC was sent a knife in the post.
Alex Salmond, speaking in the Scottish parliament as he was confirmed as first minister of Scotland, said the country should be proud of its reputation for hospitality and religious and racial tolerance, not for bigotry.
Clearly shaken by the damage caused to his party's message that Scotland is inclusive and multi-ethnic, he told the parliament that being Scottish included those Catholics who fled famines in Ireland.
This item continues at The Guardian
One of Scotland's most senior prosecutors has said there will be "zero tolerance" of religious and racist bigots after the latest hate crime figures showed a 10% increase in charges for sectarianism.
Frank Mulholland QC, the solicitor general, said religious bigotry was being tackled by an "extremely robust" prosecution policy after the number of cases reported to prosecutors increased to nearly 700 last year, the highest level in five years.
The latest statistics, which also showed that charges of racism reported to prosecutors fell by 3.6% to 4,165, follows the dramatic escalation in sectarian attacks and disputes in recent months centred on Glasgow's Celtic and Rangers football clubs.
Two men were arrested last week for explosives offences after allegedly being involved in a parcel bombing campaign against Celtic manager Neil Lennon and other prominent Catholics, including Lennon's lawyer, and an Irish republican group.
Rangers and Celtic fans are being prosecuted for alleged bigotry and racist offences on the internet and at football matches.
Earlier this week it emerged that the former Rangers' director and prominent lawyer Donald Findlay QC was sent a knife in the post.
Alex Salmond, speaking in the Scottish parliament as he was confirmed as first minister of Scotland, said the country should be proud of its reputation for hospitality and religious and racial tolerance, not for bigotry.
Clearly shaken by the damage caused to his party's message that Scotland is inclusive and multi-ethnic, he told the parliament that being Scottish included those Catholics who fled famines in Ireland.
This item continues at The Guardian
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)