Italian police raided the homes of 35 suspected neo-Nazi
sympathizers, accusing them of setting up an online forum to spread
anti-Semitic ideology, on Thursday. The operation was conducted in 22 provinces
around the country, including in Rome and Milan.
The suspects were accused of spreading ideas on the Internet
"based on racial and ethnic hatred and incitement to commit acts of
discrimination and violence for racist and ethnic reasons.”
On Thursday, police said they found two loaded weapons, a
hand grenade casing and a flag with a swastika in the flat of a 51-year-old man
in Mantua. They also confiscated at least one anti-Semitic video, according to
reports.
The suspects, accused of spreading racial hatred and
inciting racist acts of violence, had created a new website that took over from
the Italian branch of the white supremacist website Stormfront.org, which
police had closed down in November 2012. The new website had a documentary, The
Secret Enemy, which blamed the Jewish people for the global economic crisis, as
well as insults against Italian left-wing figures such as anti-Mafia author
Roberto Saviano and Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini.
“This is a dangerous organization under an ideological
profile that finds its roots in a historical period that apparently seems
distant,” prosecutor Giancarlo Capaldo told a news conference. “We must deal
with the ideological extremism that is stirring in Europe.”
Renzo Gattegna, president of the Union of Italian Jewish
Communities, issued a statement expressing “warm thanks” to the forces of order
for the “massive” crackdown.
Thursday’s operation came one year after another widespread
operation against Stormfront in which police blocked the Italian version of the
group’s website and arrested four people on charges of inciting racial and
ethnic hatred and anti-Semitism. They also raided the homes of 17 others,
confiscating fascist and neo-Nazi material.
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