The defendants, aged between 20 and 24, sit neatly dressed and with short haircuts in their seats in the security room at Stockholm District Court. They are flanked by several prison guards. No one moves an expression as the charges are read out.
Threats, robbery, assault, aggravated assault – all with racist motives.
They allegedly jumped on one of the men, punched and kicked him, robbed him of his cap and headphones and threatened his friend. They allegedly hit another man from behind and kicked him so badly that he lost consciousness and had several teeth knocked out. They are suspected of assaulting a third man on a subway train at the end of the party.
“Randomly selected”
According to prosecutor Gustav Andersson, it is clear that this is a hate crime.
"It's seemingly randomly selected people with a foreign background that they've targeted," he says.
Through their defense attorneys, the defendants deny everything – except for the last assault, in which the three defendants involved claim self-defense. But they deny that they did it together and in concert. And they deny any hate crime motive.
One of them also admits to a case of vandalism, when he scrawled Nazi messages on a couple of luxury store windows.
Did the Hitler salute
The prosecutor presents a thorough description of the men's night out on August 27. Using the many surveillance cameras in Stockholm's inner city, he shows how they moved around the streets around Stureplan and Kungsträdgården, visited a couple of restaurants and gave Hitler salutes. The atmosphere seems to have been cheerful, notes Gustav Andersson.
One of the plaintiffs – the one who was severely beaten – has difficulty watching and holding back his emotions when the sequence of events is replayed.
The actual assault is shown behind closed doors, without an audience.
The far-right so-called active clubs are part of a larger international movement that started in the United States, outwardly focusing on strength training and martial arts.
The network is inspired by the conspiracy theory of a people exchange and wants to see a strengthened “racial awareness” among whites. A warrior ideal is advocated and members are urged to prepare for a coming race war, according to a report by American extremist researchers in Just Security.
The concept has spread quickly and is now present in at least 20 countries with over 100 groups globally and in most American states, according to the organization The Counter Extremism Project.
In Sweden, it gained traction in 2023 with the network Aktivklubb Sverige, which functions as an umbrella organization for local clubs.
In an intelligence report in the fall of 2023, the police warned that Aktivklubb Sverige "is assessed to have access to weapons and explosives and is actively working to improve its combat capabilities, including through martial arts training," according to several media outlets.
In June, the Security Service also warned that young people risk being drawn into right-wing extremist clubs.
According to the Expo Foundation's annual report for 2024, five groups from Skåne up to Hälsingland are part of Aktivklubb Sverige. The number of activities registered by Expo increased significantly last year.
Source: TT
