British corporal accused of being a neo-Nazi ‘had killer’s manual’
A SOLDIER accused of being a member of a banned extremist neo-Nazi group had a terrorism manual written by mass killer Anders Breivik on his mobile phone, a court heard yesterday.
Lance Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, 33, is accused of being a member of the ‘virulently racist’ far-Right group National Action, along with Private Mark Barrett, 25.
The pair, who are both members of the Royal Anglian regiment, are facing the charge alongside another man who cannot be named for legal reasons.
A court heard the serving soldiers were ‘active members’ of the organisation that had ‘engaged in a campaign of virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic propaganda’ to stir up a ‘ race war against ethnic minorities’.
Members of the group – which was banned under anti-terrorism legislation by the Government in 2016 – stlyed themselves ‘white jihadis’. Barrett is alleged to have joined in March 2017 after being recruited by Vehvilainen.
Barrett was arrested at Dhekelia Barracks in Cyprus, while Vehvilainen, who was working as an army trainer, was based at the Army’s Welsh headquarters in Sennybridge Camp.
Opening the case at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, Duncan Atkin-
‘Called themselves white jihadis’
son QC said: ‘These defendants are not being prosecuted for their racist or neoNazi beliefs, however repulsive they may be. But for their participation in an organisation that sought actively through fear, intimidation and the threat of violence, rather than through free speech and democracy, to shape society in accordance with those beliefs.’
He added: ‘ This case concerns the defendants’ involvement in, and membership of, the proscribed racist neoNazi group, National Action.
‘Hostile to democracy and the British state, National Action actively sought to recruit and radicalise young people through the violent imagery and hate-filled language of its social media messages, its provocative street demonstrations and intimidation of local communities.
‘National Action, and its members, regularly incited ethnic and religious hatred, and glorified violence in their publications and pronouncements. By way of example, members of the group referred to themselves as “white jihadis”, as National Action cards being carried by Barrett at the time of his arrest demonstrate.’
The group was banned in December 2016 after glorifying the murder of Jo Cox MP through a series of messages posted online.
The court heard that in the days before the group was banned, one of the soldiers received an email stating that National Action was simply ‘shedding one skin for another’ and would continue under a new identity.
It continued: ‘All genuinely revolutionary movements in the past have needed to exist partly underground. These are exciting times.’
Vehvilainen, of Brecon, Powys, has denied two charges of stirring up racial hatred and possession of a terrorism manual.
The court was told that a document found on his phone after a search of his army home in Sennybridge Camp had been written by Andrew Berwick. Jurors heard that that was an alias of Anders Breivik, the Norwegian Right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. The document allegedly contains ‘both the ideology and methodology’ for Breivik’s own attacks and also discusses funding, recruitment and training for acts of terrorism.
Vehvilainen’s phone also contained evidence, it was said, of 900 visits to a website where he made two posts which Mr Atkinson alleged were ‘derogatory of, and insulting to, black persons, dehumanising them and inciting hatred against them’.
The unnamed man is facing three counts of possession of a terrorism manual – including a copy of Breivik’s pamphlet – and one count of distributing material likely to be useful to terrorists.
The unnamed defendant also owned a document described as a ‘racist instructional book’ which taught methods of ‘selective assassination’. He is also accused of sending a terrorist document to three people by Skype which detailed how to achieve the ‘eradication of the predatory black race’ from America.
The court case follows an investigation by West Midlands Counter-Terrorism Unit and the Ministry of Defence into those believed to be associated with National Action. The trial is expected to last up to four weeks.