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Our intention is to inform people of racist, homophobic, religious extreme hate speech perpetrators across social networking internet sites. And we also aim to be a focal point for people to access information and resources to report such perpetrators to appropriate web sites, governmental departments and law enforcement agencies around the world.

We will also post relevant news worthy items and information on Human rights issues, racism, extremist individuals and groups and far right political parties from around the world although predominantly Britain.

Tuesday 23 February 2010

Far Right Bomb-maker jailed for three years

A former member of a far-right group has been jailed for three years for making explosives in his home, including a pipe bomb.
Darren Tinklin, 24, from Blackwood, Caerphilly county, had admitted two charges of making explosives and possessing a firearm.
Tinklin had not wanted to injure and had not meant to create any risk, Newport Crown Court heard.
He had kept right-wing paraphernalia, including items with Nazi SS symbols.
He also had a t-shirt which said "100% fascist".
Cardiff Recorder Nicholas Cooke said he must send a "stern message to those who flirt with the manufacture of devices of this kind".
He said: "Ideas and political affiliations may come and go but there is a potential threat presented by someone who harbours an interest in explosives and extremist views.
"I cannot completely ignore that."
The court heard that Tinklin gave up his right-wing political interests in 2005, and although he had downloaded a bomb-making manual, he had never opened the files.
Mr Cooke referred to Tinklin's drug problem, saying it could lead to irresponsibility which coupled with an interest in explosives was a cause for concern.
He added there was the risk of explosive materials falling into the wrong hands.
However he gave him credit for his guilty plea but warned that people involved with explosives would face stern custodial sentences.
Tinklin was sentenced to three years, less the 119 days he has spent on remand.
 
BBC News

For the background of this item
walesonline

Accused Auschwitz Sign Thieves Face Trial in Poland

Five Polish petty criminals are awaiting trial in the case of the Auschwitz sign stolen in December last year. Prosecutors believe the theft was masterminded from Sweden by Anders Högström, a former neo-Nazi leader, and are trying to extradite him to Poland.
Marcin A., 29, is awaiting his trial in a prison on Montelupich Street in Krakow, Poland. The historical building dates from the 19th century and was first used by a military court. Germany's Gestapo later used the basement to torture and murder prisoners. When World War II ended, the Polish judicial system hanged SS guards from the Auschwitz concentration camp here.
In the worst-case scenario, Marcin A., a construction worker from near the northern Polish city of Torun, will serve a 10-year sentence. He stands accused of having helped to steal an "item of particular cultural importance." That's how lawyers describe the cynical "Arbeit macht frei" ("Work makes you free") sign that formed the top part of the entrance gate at Auschwitz, now a museum and memorial site.
The iron sign disappeared suddenly on Dec. 18. Within 70 hours, police recovered it and detained five suspects, including Marcin A.

Krakow's public prosecutors are convinced A. and his four accomplices were put up to the job. They believe Anders Högström, a Swedish former neo-Nazi leader known throughout Europe, was the mastermind behind the theft. Högström claims he is innocent.
The court will decide which statement is true. Swedish police arrested Högström in Stockholm the Thursday before last, and a court will decide this week whether to extradite him to Poland.

Old Mouse and Young Mouse
On Dec. 18, snow covered the cobblestones leading up to the main gate at Auschwitz I, the camp's main section. According to police, four men approached the gate around nightfall. The accused are Andrzej S., known as "Lens" because of the thick glasses he has worn since childhood, the brothers Lukasz and Radoslaw M., called "Old Mouse" and "Young Mouse," and another man who goes by the nickname "Lark." Like Marcin A., all four come from the area around Torun. And all are known to the local police as thieves, burglars and drinkers. Marcin A., who didn't participate in the operation directly, is said to have hired the others, paying each man the equivalent of €1,250 ($1,690) for the job.
The men are believed to have cased the arched gateway together and concluded that they needed tools. They bought a ladder and pliers at a nearby hardware store. Then, at some point during the night, three of the men returned, the fourth waiting in a car. They unscrewed the sign on one side and yanked it out of its mounting. In a nearby park, they sawed the sign into three pieces and loaded it into the backseat of a van. Guards at the memorial site didn't notice the theft until much later. The shift supervisor has since been fired.
While still in the Auschwitz area, the men called Marcin A. to report that the job was complete. Cell phone records later put police on their trail.

The Mastermind Behind the Theft?
Polish investigators believe the thieves were originally supposed to bring the sign to Gdynia, a Polish city on the Baltic Coast. A yellow Seat car with a Swedish license plate was waiting there to transport it to Sweden by ferry. Polish police assume the purchaser at the other end was Anders Högström.
Högström, 34, founded a right-wing extremist political party called the National Socialist Front in the 1990s. Since then, he has publicly declared a change of heart, and even allowed himself to be held up as a reformed sinner at a gala with Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria in Stockholm in 2001. Could he really be the creative mind behind the theft of one of the Holocaust's most important symbols?
Polish investigators think so. They believe Högström either relapsed and wanted to obtain a very special bit of memorabilia, or he might also have hoped to be able to sell the sign to a collector. In any case, they say Högström knew Marcin A., and talked on the phone with him both before and after the theft. A. and his wife had worked for a construction company belonging to Högström's father multiple times in previous years.
The investigators believe Högström panicked when the world reacted to the theft with such outrage, and blew the whistle on his Polish helpers to distract attention from his own guilt.

Politically Charged Atmosphere
Högström bragged to SPIEGEL in January that he had helped advance investigations in the case. He says he was commissioned by unknown individuals to transport the item and offer it to a rich collector. Instead, he claims, he alerted the police.
Why, though, would these unknown criminals have chosen an ex-neo-Nazi, of all people, as their middleman?
Högström has now hired a hotshot attorney, Björn Sandin. Sandin is saying nothing more than that his client is innocent. He also wants to prevent Högström from being extradited to Poland. A Swedish prison is certainly more comfortably appointed than Marcin A.'s cell in Krakow.
A.'s lawyer, Alina Ciechanowicz-Adamska, fears her client's trial may take place in a politically charged atmosphere, since the world at large was so appalled by the theft at Auschwitz. She admits her defense strategy doesn't deny the men were there, and instead plans to argue that Marcin A., Lens, Lark, Old Mouse and Young Mouse didn't really understand the significance of the item they stole. She's hoping to convince the judge that the crime was more the theft of scrap metal, rather than an offense against an "item of particular cultural importance."

spiegel

Jail for paedophile who groomed girl, 14 (UK)

A predatory paedophile who stealthily groomed a 14-year-old girl with depraved and crude sexual chats before taking her to woods for sex was jailed for four years today.
Balding Gerrard Roberts used a social networking site called Netlog to groom young girls before cajoling them into meeting him for sex between May and September last year.
The 50-year-old chicken farm worker, who was dismissed from the RAF following an arson attack in 1980, groomed the girl in a case of "sustained predatory sexual offending", Judge Stephen Robbins said.
Usha Shergill, prosecuting, said Roberts "rather connivingly built up an online relationship" with the 14-year-old girl and then sexually abused her.
But he was simultaneously grooming an undercover investigator posing as a 13-year-old girl, London's Southwark Crown Court heard.
Ms Shergill said Roberts clearly thought he was messaging a 13-year-old girl and "employed highly manipulative tactics" in order to gain her trust.
He was "engaging and complimentary" at first, before progressing to "highly sexualised chats" in which he "expressed his wish to engage in sex", she said.
Roberts arranged to meet her at Twickenham railway station in south west London, but was arrested when he arrived on September 24.
He told officers: "I'm only looking around. I've never done this before. I only wanted to meet her."
Police found semi-nude images of the 14-year-old girl who Roberts was also grooming at the same time when they searched his computer and traced her through her mobile phone number.
Ms Shergill said: "He groomed her, he met her and he engaged in sexual activity with her on two occasions.
"It was a predatory exercise to stealthily groom a 14-year-old girl."
He aimed to win her trust "in order to meet her and abuse her", Ms Shergill said.
Roberts had bombarded her with 24 "depraved and crude" messages, telling her to send him semi-nude photos of herself and asking her for sex.
After sexually touching her in Wat Tyler Country Park in Basildon, Essex, Roberts bought her a meal from McDonalds which the pair ate in his car.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told police she felt embarrassed and remorseful afterwards but agreed to meet Roberts again after he told her he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.
Richard Barrett, defending Roberts, admitted his client did not show much insight or empathy into his offences.
Roberts, of Steep Marsh, Petersfield, Hampshire, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a female child, two counts of sexual grooming, attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming, and attempted sexual activity, at an earlier hearing.
The Independant

Facebook group advocated shooting Down Syndrome sufferers

An Italian page on the social networking website Facebook has brought together activists calling to use children with Down Syndrome for target practice, prompting outrage among officials and activists.
The group’s page, which by late Sunday had amassed more than 1,700 members including women, featured a photograph of a baby with Down Syndrome and the word “idiot” scrawled over it. The users referred to these children as “useless baggage” and “foul creatures”, proposing to use them as targets at shooting ranges.

Italian authorities and activists have denounced the web page and are rallying to have it shut down. More than 20,000 internet activists have united against the group, opening rival pages.
Italy’s equality minister Mara Carfagna has called the group “dangerous” and “unworthy of civilized society,” Corriere della Sera newspaper reports.
“Inciting crime is the same thing as committing crime, and without a doubt it will be prosecuted,” said Carfagna. “Those guilty will be found and charged. The police are working to ban the group.”
However, it may take some time for the group’s page to be shut down due to the legal complexities, AFP news agency reported.
Recently, a Russian blogger had also stirred public debate and criticism by proposing to euthanize newborn children diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
RT

MOST CZECHS AGREE WITH ABOLITION OF WORKERS' PARTY

Most Czechs support the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) to dissolve the ultra-right Workers' Party (DS), according to the latest Internet poll conducted by the SANEP agency and released to CTK Sunday. Almost 75 percent of the respondents agree with the DS's abolition, and some four-fifths say the DS is an extremist party promoting Nazism. According to 69 percent of the polled, extremist parties threaten democracy. Moreover, about three-quarters of the respondents would like to abolish "all political parties and movements that have elements of racial hatred and xenophobia and instigate violence." Over 55 percent of the polled do not consider the fight against extremism sufficiently resolute. The NSS decided to dissolve the extra-parliamentary DS on Wednesday, complying with the proposal of the government saying the DS is extremist and poses a threat to democracy. The court justified the verdict concluding that the DS's programme, ideas and symbols contain the elements of xenophobia, chauvinism, homophobia and a racist subtext, and follow up national socialism, the ideology connected with Adolf Hitler. The DS representatives announced on Saturday that they would run in the May general election for the allied Workers' Party of Social Justice (DSSS). Most DS members would join the DSSS, DS chairman Tomas Vandas told reporters. The SANEP poll shows that some 65 percent do the polled would agree with the abolition of any party that would follow up the DS's activities. A total of 14,293 respondents participated in the SANEP Internet poll on February 18-20 of whom the agency selected a group of 6377 people aged 18-69 years.


praguemonitor

A victim of cyber bullying in South Korea

99 per cent of South Koreans between the age of 10 and 39 are regular internet users. Whatever happens in society immediately attracts online comments, many of them anonymous. They can be offensive; Korean actresses have committed suicide because they couldn't cope with cyber bullying. The government wants to punish online libel with up to three years in jail. But the opposition has blocked the bill, fearing censorship.

After a young Korean woman said on a popular TV show in November that short men were losers, she was flooded with angry complaints on the internet. Soon after her name and address became public, and she was forced to officially apologise to appease the enraged public. The TV show, called "Gossiping Beauties", also had on a German guest, Vera Hohleiter, who also became a victim of cyber bullying in South Korea.


"This is a huge problem and it's been widely discussed in the Korean media," says Hohleiter. "And it was found that those who spread really nasty comments in the internet are a very small group among the Korean web users, less than one per cent. It's just the Korean media overreacting to these internet scandals, making them bigger than they actually are."


"Sleepless in Seoul", was published last July. In it, she described everyday experiences from overcrowded subway trains and South Koreans' daily diets up to horrible mother-in-laws. She has a Korean partner and her writing is intentionally subjective. But many Koreans felt she hit at their national pride.

"I've lived long enough in Korea to know that something like this could happen," says Hohleiter. "Many Korean journalists asked me if I hadn't been aware while writing that this would cause quite a stir. I always answered saying I tried not to think about it because otherwise, had I been too careful, it would have become a really bad book!"
When her book, "Sleepless in Seoul", came out last July in German, a Korean student in Germany translated parts of it - not always correctly - and published them on her blog. This made Vera Hohleiter a target in the Korean internet.
"When the affair was at its peak, I hardly went out in public, only to work in the radio," she recalls,  "I took taxis whenever I had to go somewhere. Korean friends advised me to do that. One friend told me she would be worried about my safety if I took the subway."Vera Hohleiter did get death threats, but there were also Koreans who supported her. A publisher soon decided to bring out an authorized Korean translation of her book. But when it was published, it turned out that not many Koreans seemed interested in finding out first hand what all the fuss was about. Meanwhile, emotions have cooled down and Vera Hohleiter now finds herself able to walk the streets of Seoul without fear. She says, however, that her next book will be a novel for sure.

DU World

Focus on disability hate crimes in Pembrokeshire (Wales, UK)

A group helping to organise a conference to raise awareness of disability hate crime says too few of such cases are reported to police.
Henry Langen of Pembrokeshire Access Group (PAG) also said that many were not leading to prosecutions.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Dyfed-Powys Police will co-host the day-long event at Narberth, with PAG.
Among the speakers will be Simon Green, 34, of Bridgend, a wheelchair user who has been a victim of hate crime.
The conference, at Hotel Plas Hyfryd, Narberth, is open to any disabled persons who have
Earlier this year Simon Green presented a BBC Wales Week in Week Out documentary on disability hate crime, and also appeared in a follow-up on the Panorama programme.
Mr Green, who has been a wheelchair user for six years, said during that time he had been physically and verbally assaulted because he is disabled.
For Week In, Week Out he secretly filmed a couple of his nights out to expose the hostility and abuse he sometimes experiences.
During one evening he was confronted by a group of men who verbally abused him, swore at him, called him a "cripple", and suggested he could really walk.
Mr Langen said: "There's not enough of these cases reported to the police and with regard to the ones that are reported there are not enough prosecutions.
"The CPS and the police need to have a rethink on this."
A spokeswoman for the CPS said it wanted to encourage more people to come forward and report any instances of disability hate crimes.
All reports would be treated seriously, the spokeswoman added.
"We are starting to look more closely at disability hate crime and improve what we are doing with it," she said.
"There are still improvements that can be made."
BBC News

HUNGARY PARLIAMENT MULLS LEGAL BAN ON HOLOCAUST DENIAL

Hungary's parliament voted on Monday in favour of making Holocaust denial a criminal offence, punishable by up to three years imprisonment. The law was passed in a final vote with 197 in favour, 1 against, and 142 abstentions. It had been proposed by Attila Mesterhazy, prime ministerial candidate of the governing Hungarian Socialist Party. A motion by the centre-right opposition party Fidesz to extend the law to cover the denial of other crimes committed under the Communist regime was rejected by 178 votes to 146, with seven abstentions. The law, which is due to come into effect in 30 days, was passed on the final session of parliament until after general elections that are due to be held in April. New legislation is subject to review by Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom, who has the power to return it to parliament for reconsideration. Fidesz, whose lawmakers abstained in the final vote, is far ahead of the Socialists in opinion polls and is widely expected to form Hungary's next government. Some 450,000 Hungarian Jews are thought to have perished during the closing months of the World War Two at the hands of the Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross Party, backed by Nazi Germany.

DPA

OUTGOING HUNGARIAN PM WARNS OF RISE OF FAR RIGHT

Outgoing Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said on Monday Hungary's main parties must join forces to prevent the far right entering parliament in April elections, calling it a "monster" that threatens democracy. Hungary will hold elections on April 11 and 25. Opinion polls give the far-right party Jobbik 6-7 percent support, which could lead to it winning dozens of seats in the Hungarian parliament. It won three in the European parliament last year. Jobbik has been banking on deep public discontent over the economic crisis and rising resentment against Hungary's large Roma minority. It campaigns on tax cuts, clamping down on corruption and what it calls "Roma crime". "This monster stands in front of our doors and is banging on the door demanding that we let it in," Bajnai said in a speech in parliament. Jobbik has no representation in parliament. "It became a movement ... from a movement a party, and it got into European Parliament and now it wants to make it into the Hungarian parliament," said Bafnai, who is not running in the April election. Jobbik has strong support in the countryside, mainly in the northeast where unemployment is high. Analysts have said that cooperation with the far right could dent the next government's image in the eyes of investors. Bajnai said Jobbik had no realistic programme and was only seeking scapegoats for the economic crisis. "The far right ... abuses democracy and freedom. It lies that it has a solution to all those who have been worn out and have lost patience, while it itself is the problem," he said. The main centre-right opposition party Fidesz, widely expected to win the elections and oust the ruling Socialists, has ruled out any coalition with Jobbik. The Socialist minority government has steered Hungary back from the brink of financial collapse since it called in the International Monetary Fund in 2008. But the economy contracted by 6.3 percent in 2009 and job losses soared. The main parties remained split later on Monday in votes on proposals to fight both far-right and far-left ideas. Parliament approved legislation to punish public Holocaust denial with up to three years in prison, the Socialists voting in favour and Fidesz, whose proposal to add Communist crimes to the bill failed to get a majority, abstaining.


reuters