Tuesday, January 11, 2022
Neo-Nazi group in the USA
Convicted of a member of the Atomic Weapons Division
The neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division is considered fanatical and violent in the USA. Now a leader of the right-wing extremists has to go to prison for several years. The 25-year-old had threatened several journalists and activists.
A leader of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division has been sentenced to seven years in prison for threats against journalists and anti-Semitism activists. “Threats motivated by religious intolerance are contrary to American values,” said Kristen Clarke of the US Justice Department. The 25-year-old convicted in the West Coast state of Washington had “led a conspiracy by a neo-Nazi group in several states” to “threaten and intimidate” journalists and activists who had exposed hostility towards Jews.
Kaleb C. was arrested at the same time as three other members of the Atomwaffen Division in early 2020. The group was charged with drafting and mailing threatening posters with Nazi symbols or for hanging them on the homes of their victims. Most of the victims were Jews or black journalists.
The posters showed, among other things, a figure throwing a Molotov cocktail at a house and read “Your local Nazis have paid you a visit”. Kaleb C. is said to have designed the posters.
The other three arrested had pleaded guilty to the trial. One received a three-year prison sentence and the second received a 16-month prison term. The third defendant, a transgender person, escaped prison sentence. The judge felt that he had suffered enough at a young age. C., on the other hand, pleaded not guilty, so he was tried.
The Atomwaffen Division is considered to be extremely fanatical and violent. In the United States, members have been linked with several murders in recent years and with alleged plans for attacks on synagogues, for example. In Germany, a German offshoot of the organization caused outrage in autumn 2019 with death threats against the Green politicians Cem Özdemir and Claudia Roth.