There are a total of five defendants in the case, two of whom face charges of committing crimes with terrorist intent. A trial related to the suspected terrorist activities of a group located in the small town of Kankaanpää began at Satakunta district court on Tuesday morning. The five defendants in the case face 27 charges in total, with two of the suspects charged with committing crimes with terrorist intent. An Yle investigation into the gang’s activities revealed an extensive list of crimes committed by its members, with interviewees reporting the gang were known to harass, intimidate and even violently attack people in the town over the course of a number of years. Many of these incidents involved victims from minority backgrounds, police said, as the group were influenced by racist and neo-Nazi ideology. This case also marks the first time terror charges were ever filed against a far-right group in Finland. (…) According to investigating officers, the suspected crimes were committed between 2018 and 2023 in Kankaanpää, a small town near Pori on Finland’s west coast. The crimes were fuelled by the group’s adoption of extreme right-wing, racist and neo-Nazi ideology, the prosecutor told the court, adding that they believe white-skinned people were under threat in some way — a far-right trope. Prosecutors say the group followed so-called accelerationist tactics, aiming to foment chaos by using extreme violence and thereby hasten — or accelerate — the collapse of western societies. Accelerationist ideas have spread online and been cited by several mass killers in recent years.
via yle: Kankaanpää neo-Nazi terror trial starts
siehe dazu auch: Yle investigation: Kankaanpää neo-Nazi gang had history of intimidation, harassment, assaults Five members of the far-right group were arrested by police in early December on suspicion of terrorist offences. One suspect has since been released from pre-trial detention. (…) Earlier this month, Satakunta District Court remanded five men, all aged between 23 and 26 years old and believed to be members of the group, on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. A subsequent Yle investigation has revealed an extensive list of crimes committed by members of the group, with interviewees reporting that the gang were known to harass, intimidate and even violently attack people in the town over the course of the past few years. A number of these incidents involved victims from minority backgrounds, with Yle’s sources revealing that their minority status was the very reason they were attacked by the group.