Far-right activists banned from entering Britain

Far-right figure refused police access to his phone at Heathrow on return from Moscow

The leader of the far-right political group Britain First has been found guilty of an offence under the Terrorism Act after refusing to give police access to his mobile phone on his return from a political trip to Russia.

Paul Golding, 38, was stopped at Heathrow by Metropolitan police officers on 23 October last year on his way back from Moscow. He refused to give the pin codes for an iPhone and Apple computer and was later charged with wilfully refusing to comply with a duty under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act.

Golding denied the charge but was found guilty following a trial at Westminster magistrates court in London on Wednesday.

Chief magistrate Emma Arbuthnot ruled there was “no doubt” that Golding had failed to comply with requests for information, despite his obligations being explained to him and being warned “over and over” that he risked arrest.

She handed Golding a conditional discharge for nine months and ordered him to pay a £21 surcharge and £750 in costs.

Arbuthnot said Golding had been lawfully questioned and that under Schedule 7 there had been no requirement for “reasonable suspicion” for the stop.
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Golding, of Hodder Bank, Stockport, spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth, address and nationality.

English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, watched the proceedings in the court’s physically distanced public gallery.

Golding described Britain First as a “patriotic, right-wing, conservative” group who considered themselves “loyalist”.

Golding described Britain First as a “patriotic, right-wing, conservative” group who considered themselves “loyalist”.

The UK government is full of rich cowards.

Coldjoint really is stupid and ignorant if he thinks he can upset me by attacking Johnson.

I am saying your whole government has become an Islamic lap dog and an Islamic lap dog are the ones you need. They are men that care about their culture and the children. Your government clearly does not.

But you're free (and known) to promote neo-National Socialists,

The Nazi's are already in power over there.

Well, on the one hand you demand that the UK needs them

Coldjoint wouldn’t know truth if it bit him on the arse

Germany saw a rise both far-right and far-left crimes in 2019, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday.

The country's police recorded just over 41,000 cases of politically motivated crime last year, representing a rise of 14.2% compared to 2018, when there were just over 36,000.

More than half of all cases could be attributed to the far-right scene, the statistics show, with 22,342 cases, representing a 9.4% increase. The politically motivated crimes recorded ranged from verbal abuse, spreading racist propaganda, hate speech, to assault, arson, and murder. There has also been a 23% rise in far-left crime, focused particularly in the eastern city of Leipzig.

At the press conference, Seehofer was at pains to allay concerns that police or authorities were losing sight of far-right violence.

"The biggest threat comes from the far-right, we have to see that clearly," Seehofer said,

Authorities also recorded 2,032 crimes motivated by anti-Semitism - a rise of 13% over 2018, and the highest since those statistics were collected. Some 93.4% of those crimes were carried out by far-right perpetrators. Seehofer said there was a similar figure – 90.1% - for Islamophobic crimes, which have also risen by 4% to 950 cases.

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Participating in paramilitary training is legal in Russia. Such training takes place under the protective umbrella of DOSAAF (Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Navy), an organization whose founding dates back to the days of the Soviet Union. The actual training, in which Germans reportedly participated, is provided by a club appearing under two different names: "Rezerv" or "Partizan." It takes place at a military facility on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. Until 2018, "Partizan" and its members were listed on the website of St. Petersburg's municipal office as a vigilante group in the Vyborg district. "That was prior to my taking office," a district representative told DW when asked about the matter.
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Right-wing populists in Russia

Russia in the past has served as a meeting point for right-wing populists and radicals from around Europe. In 2015, St. Petersburg hosted the "International Russian Conservative Forum." Participants included the former chairman of the German extreme-right National Democratic Party (NPD), Udo Voigt, as well as representatives from Italy's extreme-right Forza Nuova party, Greece's neo-fascist Golden Dawn party and Italy's far-right League (Lega) party.

In 2017, just prior to presidential elections in France, Marine Le Pen — then the leader of French far-right party National Front, which was renamed Rassemblement National in 2018 — visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Le Pen advocated closer ties with Russia and criticized European Union sanctions against the country. The National Front also received a €9 million ($10.2 million) loan from a Russian bank.

Representatives of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) paty, led by then-chairperson Frauke Petry, also visited Moscow in 2017. The delegation met both lawmakers from the ruling United Russia party and representatives from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, led by right-wing populist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Who conducts the paramilitary training?

The training center and club organizers have very close ties to Russia's Christian Orthodox extremists. The chairman of the club and founder of the training center is reportedly Denis Gariev, who is also one of the key figures behind the Russian Imperial Movement, or RIM, which was designated as a terrorist organization by the United States government in April 2020.

By its own account, the Russian Imperial Movement is a monarchist, "orthodox-patriotic," "right-wing conservative" organization fighting for "white supremacy." RIM is not considered a terrorist group in Russia. However, the country's Ministry of Justice categorized the organization's website, as well as a number of its online articles, as extremist.

While the RIM website is now temporarily inaccessible, their social media channels on Telegram and Vkontakte are still in operation. Statements posted there make plain that the movement explicitly shares racist views. Worldwide protests in the wake of the killing of black American George Floyd under the Black Lives Matter slogan are referred to as "hell," with protesters "worshipping a black idol." The spreading of the coronavirus is labeled "the so-called pandemic" and portrayed as an international conspiracy. The group also claims Russia's salvation will be the "rebirth" of the Christian Orthodox monarchy, which, if necessary, has to be reinstated by force, "because an Orthodox Christian is always a fighter, too."

What is known about the right-wing extremist participants?

Some of the men are members of the Young Nationalists, the youth wing of the NPD, Germany's oldest right-wing extremist party. As the youth wing only counts 280 members, it remains politically insignificant, although its participants are rather active when it comes to public action. The group has run would-be environmental protection campaigns, for example, in an attempt to win over young supporters.

Other participants in the paramilitary training in Russia are reportedly members of The Third Way, one of the most radical political parties in Germany. According to the Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, the party promotes a nationalist and racist ideology influenced by Nazism, and it rejects democracy. The Third Way was founded by members of a right-wing extremist association from southern Germany just as it was about to be banned by lawmakers — in Germany, the hurdles for banning a political party are much higher than those for banning a club or association.
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Four neo-Nazi “diehards” are facing jail for being “active members” of the banned terrorist group National Action (NA).

Alice Cutter and her former partner Mark Jones appeared at Birmingham crown court on Monday, along with Garry Jack and Connor Scothern.

The extreme rightwing group, whose members have been described as “diehards” by the director of public prosecutions, was banned in December 2016 after a series of rallies and incidents, including praising the murder of the MP Jo Cox.

Cutter, a former Miss Hitler beauty pageant contestant, and Jones, both of Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire, as well as Jack and Scothern were all convicted of having membership of a terrorist group, after a trial in March.
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The hearing continues.

Four neo-Nazi “diehards” are facing jail for being “active members” of the banned terrorist group National Action (NA).

A neo-Nazi who called himself “Grandaddy Terror” has been jailed alongside other members of National Action.

Mark Jones, who counter-terror police described as a “lynchpin in the national structure” of the terrorist group, was sentenced alongside his former fiancée Alice Cutter.

A trial heard she entered the terrorist group’s “Miss Hitler” beauty pageant and made “shocking” comments about Jews, including violent fantasies of murder and ethnic cleansing.

Birmingham Crown Court heard that Jones, 25, and Cutter, 24, sported “his-and-hers swastika knitwear” and had a collection of Nazi paraphernalia, knuckle dusters, knives and other weapons.

They denied membership of a proscribed organisation alongside Garry Jack, 24, and Connor Scothern, 19, but were convicted in March following a retrial.

Sentencing the group at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Paul Farrer QC said National Action was “the most extreme version of a neo-Nazi organisation to appear in the UK for many decades”.

“As a result of its extreme ideology and behaviour, it was proscribed as a terrorist organisation on 16 December 2016,” he added.

“After proscription, you were not prepared to disassociate yourselves from the ideology of this group and you therefore defied the ban.”

Jones was sentenced to five-and-a-half years imprisonment, Jack four-and-a-half years, Cutter three years and Scothern was given an 18-month detention and training order because he was under 18 at the time.

All four defendants will be considered by the Parole Board before they can be released under new sentencing laws, and were handed terrorist notification requirements and extended licences.

All four defendants will be considered by the Parole Board before they can be released under new sentencing laws, and were handed terrorist notification requirements and extended licences.

Racist attacks draw toughest jail term