FOUR men are due to go on trial on Thursday (30) in Sweden accused of hate crimes for assaulting immigrants, a case that centres on a growing trend in Europe for white supremacists to band together in 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.
The founder of the US neo-Nazi Rise Above Movement (RAM), Robert Rundo, came up with the idea for the clubs while he was on the run from the US justice system -- his group was involved in the 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 while holding a black banner bearing the movement's emblem.
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 then 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.
The four men who go on trial on Thursday, all in their twenties, are accused of beating up immigrants in central Stockholm just after midnight on August 27.
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 in a subway station, prosecutors say. Surveillance footage shows some men doing Nazi salutes.
"These are totally unprovoked acts of violence, motivated by hate," prosecutor Gustav Andersson said in a statement.
According to the preliminary investigation, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, material seized from the four as evidence includes notebooks with 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.
He said Sweden stood out as its local clubs were "led by very young individuals" often in their early twenties who recruited young teenagers 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.
In its annual report for 2024-2025, Sweden's intelligence service Sapo warned against the risk of radicalisation among 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 the report.
The four suspects have denied the charges and made no comment during police questioning, according to the preliminary investigation.
(AFP)
