Far-Right Militia Trial: Heavy Police Protection and Weapons Seizure

2023-11-19 15:29:00

The hearing was held under heavy police protection this Friday before the Oudenaarde criminal court: numerous police officers, checks and metal detectors, prosecutor under escort. All this for the trial of seventeen defendants, members of a Flemish far-right movement, founded by ex-soldier Tomas Boutens, already convicted of terrorism. They are being prosecuted this time for “formation of a private militia” and illegal possession of weapons.

The facts date from December 19, 2020, in the middle of the Covid period. Police officers come across a prohibited gathering of around twenty people in a castle in Viane, in the town of Grammont in East Flanders. Weapons are seized, crossbows, a knife, targets with names, swastikas and a portrait of Hitler.

The participants, dressed in black, evoke a festive competition. Justice is instead thinking of the creation of a private, armed militia, trained for the purposes of violence. The group calls itself “Project Thule,” as the Nazis called the ideal Nordic Aryan civilization.

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#people #prosecuted #constitution #private #militia #illegal #possession #weapons

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