Four alleged members of neo-Nazi group arrested in UK
AFP, Tuesday 5 Sep 2017


Four alleged members of a banned British neo-Nazi group were arrested on Tuesday for terror offences, police said.

National Action became the first far-right group to be outlawed by the government in December last year, six months after the assassination of lawmaker Jo Cox by a far-right sympathiser.

The four suspects are being held "on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation and instigation of acts of terrorism," West Midlands police said in a statement.

Police did not name the four but said they were aged between 22 and 32 and came from Birmingham, Ipswich and Northampton in England and Powys in Wales.

"The arrests were pre-planned and intelligence-led; there was no threat to the public's safety," the statement said, adding that raids were also being carried out in "a number of properties".

Cox, an MP from the main opposition Labour party, was shot and stabbed to death in her constituency by far-right nationalist Thomas Mair in June 2016.

Mair shouted "Britain first!" as he killed her.

National Action, which had praised Mair's actions, was banned in December of the same year.

At the time, Interior Minister Amber Rudd branded the organisation as "racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic".

In June this year, van driver Darren Osborne allegedly mowed down Muslim worshippers near a London mosque, leaving one person dead.

Prosecutors said Osborne was "motivated by extreme political views and a personal hatred of Muslims". He is currently in custody awaiting trial.

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