The defendants, aged between 20 and 24, sit neatly dressed and well-combed next to their lawyers in the secure room at Stockholm District Court. They are surrounded by several prison guards. No one makes a face when the charges are read out.
Threats, robbery, assault, aggravated assault – all with racist motives.
They allegedly beat and kicked one of their victims, stole his cap and headphones, and threatened his friend. Shortly afterwards, they allegedly knocked another man down from behind and kicked him so badly that he lost consciousness and had several teeth knocked out. They are suspected of assaulting a third on a subway train at the end of the evening.
"I barely have time to reflect before I get punched. I'm being punched. Someone really takes the initiative and punches me with everything he can," says the young man who was beaten on the subway.
“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 – but they admit that “some kind of altercation occurred.” The man who was severely beaten, according to one of the defendants, was hit by mistake because they mistakenly believed that the man was part of the earlier “altercation.” The violence in the subway was self-defense, they claim.
All deny hate crime motives.
The prosecutor presents a survey of the men's night out on August 27. With the help of the many surveillance cameras in Stockholm's inner city, he shows how they moved around Stureplan and Kungsträdgården, visited a couple of restaurants and made Hitler salutes. The atmosphere seems to have been cheerful, he notes.
“Kickboxing”
One of the victims, the one who was allegedly robbed, starts crying during his interrogation. They kicked him in the head while he was lying down, like a football, he says. After the incident, he has had permanent problems with his eyesight and hip. He has panic attacks and is on sick leave, he explains.
"It seemed like they were training kickboxing. They knew what they were doing, like they were training to hurt," he says through his interpreter.
The fact that these are suspected hate crimes has made the violations extra serious, according to the plaintiff's attorney Elias Bulale.
"First and foremost, they have been subjected to serious acts of violence and as an additional layer, there is a hate crime motive. That has obviously gained even more weight," he says.
The investigation links the accused men to the Nazi Aktivklubb Sverige, three of whom are from the Stockholm branch of the White Boys. Three of the men come from the northern parts of Stockholm. The fourth is from western Sweden and the investigation seems to show that he was in Stockholm to join the group.
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.
