Four men went on trial on Thursday in Sweden accused of hate crimes and attacking immigrants in a case that has revealed the growing trend of white supremacists banding together in fitness clubs. Prosecutors say the four suspects were members of an “Active Club” — loosely structured groups that meet in gyms and aim to promote white nationalist ideology. Robert Rundo, the founder of the US neo-Nazi Rise Above Movement (RAM), came up with the idea for the clubs while on the run in Europe. His group was also involved in the deadly 2017 Charlottesville riots. In Sweden members of Aktivklubb Sverige (Active Club Sweden) post photos of themselves on social media bare-chested, flaunting their muscles. They hide their faces behind balaclavas in Sweden’s blue and yellow national colours while holding a black banner bearing the movement’s emblem. The four men who went on trial on Thursday, all in their 20s, are accused of beating up immigrants in central Stockholm just after midnight on August 27. Nazi salutes “People of foreign origin were chosen at random” to be attacked, and several of the accused “made Nazi salutes that were caught on surveillance cameras”, prosecutor Gustav Andersson told the Stockholm district court. Prosecutors say they first hit a black man in the face with an umbrella while shouting racial slurs, then attacked a man of Syrian origin, knocking him to the ground and kicking him in the head until he lost consciousness. Three of the suspects then beat a man on a subway train, prosecutors argued. Active Club members “hope to regain their masculinity by way of violence, improving their physical fitness and building a strong fraternity with other men who support each other”, according to a document published by the Swedish Centre for Preventing Violent Extremism. They are encouraged to use violence outside the gym against targets including immigrants, feminists, Jews and the LGBT community, according to the Swedish anti-racism watchdog Expo.
via rfi: Swedish hate-crime trial shines light on far-right ‘fitness clubs’