Volkswacht Bodensee - Swedish hate-crime trial shines light on far-right '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.

"I was beaten severely... I didn't even have time to think before he took a running start and hit me with full force," the victim of the subway attack told the court.

"You could feel the intense hatred," he said.

The four denied the charges.

- 'Locomotive of extremism' -

Anton Sundberg, a lawyer for one of the defendants, urged the court to shut out the "ambient noise" surrounding the case -- referring to their Active Club links -- and said his client would not speak about his "ideological beliefs".

"In this kind of situation, you easily run the risk of getting things very wrong," he warned the court.

He urged the judges to "think about what has really been proven" and to consider the actions of each accused individually and not as a group.

According to the preliminary investigation, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, notebooks seized from the four had swastikas and stickers with the inscription "Love Sweden, Hate Islam".

A photograph submitted as evidence also shows that one of the four scratched apparent Nazi references into a table while in detention.

"Sweden is the locomotive of Nordic far-right extremism," Expo researcher Jonathan Leman told AFP.

Aktivklubb Sverige maintains close ties with its Nordic and Baltic counterparts.

Leman said Sweden stood out as its local clubs were "led by very young individuals" often in their early 20s who recruited young teens through TikTok, with the stated goal of training them to be violent.

Leman revealed in July that the 16-year-old son of Sweden's Migration Minister Johan Forssell was a member of Aktivklubb Sverige.

Forssell, of the right-wing Moderates Party, faced heavy criticism but insisted he did not know his son was a member.

Sweden's intelligence service Sapo has warned of the risk of radicalisation of young men attracted by violence and far-right groups.

"The violent extremist Active Clubs are a phenomenon that is spreading in Europe," the agency's head of operations Fredrik Hallstrom said in its annual report.

G.Schmid--VB