The men, all in their 20s, were sentenced to between three years and three years and six months in prison for aggravated assault and battery. They will also have to pay compensation to their victims.
The events took place during a night out on August 27 of this year when the men attacked three men with a foreign background in central Stockholm.
All four men participated in the first two assaults, while three of them participated in the third.
The court ruled that it was a hate crime. The men allegedly shouted racist slurs and at least two of them made Hitler salutes during the evening. One of them was also convicted of vandalism for scrawling Nazi messages on two shop windows.
Knocked down from behind
In the first attack, on Kungsgatan in Stockholm, the group was suspected of having jumped on a 43-year-old man who was on his way home from work, punched and kicked him and took his cap and headphones. According to the court, however, it has not been proven who carried out the violence, and the men are acquitted of suspicions of robbery. However, one of them is convicted of aggravated theft.
Just minutes later, a lone 41-year-old man was attacked while he was standing smoking on Birger Jarlsgatan. One of the convicted men hit him hard in the back of the head and the assault continued with punches and kicks while he was lying down. The man lost several teeth and has had permanent head pain and hearing loss. He himself does not remember anything about the incident. The investigation has shown that the men laughed during the assault.
A 27-year-old man was attacked on the subway by three of the convicted men who were on their way home. In the trial, the 27-year-old described how he was showered with punches and kicks and that the perpetrators tried to drag him off the train to continue the assault on the platform.
Claimed self-defense
Three of the men are from the northern parts of Stockholm and are connected to the Nazi Aktivklubb Sverige and its Stockholm branch, the White Boys. A fourth comes from western Sweden. The men's messages to each other before the evening show that the western Swede had traveled to Stockholm because he was interested in joining the movement.
All are convicted against their denials. In the trial, the men have claimed that they acted in self-defense, but the court dismisses their explanations as fabricated, far-fetched and contradictory. All deny that there were racist motives, and no one has wanted to talk about their political beliefs in the trial.
