Photo: Kenny Smith with Scottish PA members

As nazis worldwide prepared for their annual celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday, Searchlight is picking up reports of a bitter factional split in Britain’s leading nazi group, Patriotic Alternative.

Searchlight has expected this split for months, between Mark Collett and his cult followers on one side, and former BNP officials led by Scotland PA’s Kenny Smith on the other.

This is the second split within a month, after Hitler lookalike Alek Yerbury broke away to form a military style splinter group, the National Support Detachment.

Smith runs a PA-linked mail order business called Claymore Books. Together with PA’s Scottish organiser Simon Crane (alias Si Borg) he leads a faction that hoped to turn the movement into a registered political party capable of contesting elections.

PA’s very own führer Mark Collett (who first hit the headlines as star of a Channel 4 documentary Young Nazi and Proud and whose ex-girlfriend proudly displayed a swastika tattoo) is more interested in promoting pro-Russian conspiracy theories on podcasts and stirring up hatred among his young acolytes.

While at the opposite extreme from Kenny Smith, Alek Yerbury is attracting support from the most conspiracy-minded former PA members who see politics in apocalyptic terms. So, there is now a three-way split in what was once PA.

PA Scotland (allegedly backed by several English regional organisers) lost patience yesterday and will soon announce a breakaway movement. Though they do not (yet) accuse him of Griffin-style corruption, Smith and his allies believe that Collett is too focused on youth subcultures and business enterprises that are only semi-political.

Collett will be highly embarrassed if the Smith faction succeed quickly in registering with the Electoral Commission. Collett and his deputy Laura Tyrie (alias Laura Towler) have spent more than three years claiming that they were trying to register but being obstructed.

PA’s Eastern region headed by Steve Blake is supposedly loyal to the leadership, even though Blake is an old ally of Smith in anti-Collett conspiracies and his long-term loyalties are doubted. The notoriously paranoid Collett is looking increasingly like his old leader Nick Griffin.

Alongside his core support in Scotland, Smith hopes to win support from a broader network of electorally-focused BNP veterans including several Midlands activists. Collett can (for the moment) command the loyalty of Tyrie and her ambitious husband Sam Melia.

But if the Melias change their mind, then the party will be well and truly over for Mark Collett.

Martin Smith uncovers the unholy alliances between far-right and neo-nazi parties, and why they are campaigning for the release of terror gang members responsible for violent attacks on government officials and LGBT+ groups in the latter 2000s

Far-right unity: Campaigners to free Budaházy come from across the far-right spectrum. (The banner reads: ‘Freedom to Budaházy! Freedom for political prisoners’)

The Hungarian President and Fidesz member, Katalin Novák, announced in December 2022 that she was going to pardon seven of those found guilty in the infamous ‘Budaházy case’. The case centres on the Hungarian neo-nazi, György Budaházy, and 16 of his supporters.

Budaházy was the leader of a terrorist organisation, the Hungarian Arrows (Magyarok Nyilai), between 2007 and 2009. It carried out a series of violent attacks against leading social-democratic and liberal government officials and LGBT+ groups. They also physically attacked Sándor Csintalan, a former socialist politician, who today is a media personality and hosts the pro Fidesz HírTV news channel.

The case has been ongoing for over 13 years. Budaházy and his accomplices were first arrested in June 2009. After numerous complex legal manoeuvres, the trial concluded in the summer of 2016. The courts sentenced him to 13 years in prison and 15 of his accomplices received sentences of between five and 13 years.

All the defendants appealed against the verdict, which resulted in the appeals court dismissing the sentences and ordering a retrial. The retrial concluded in March 2022, and this time the court sentenced Budaházy to 17 years in prison for terrorist activities. Five other members of his organisation received sentences of ten years or more and a third group were each sentenced to five years.

The recent decision by the Hungarian President to pardon seven of the gang is the latest twist in this troubling case.

Paramilitary partners: György Budaházy (right) with László Toroczkai, leader of the nazi Our Homeland Movement

Budaházy’s far-right pals

Budaházy and his backers have also been buoyed by the support they have had from public figures, far-right politicians and groups. As well as several key Fidesz pundits, three prominent scientists have called for the release of Budaházy and his accomplices.

The ‘reformed’ neo-nazi Jobbik movement plays a prominent role in the campaign to release him. Its press office described the verdicts as ‘unjust’ and one of its prominent MEPs, Krisztina Morvai, led a group of Budaházy supporters and disrupted the final day of the hearing.

Finally, all six MPs belonging to the nazi Our Homeland Movement (Mi Hazánk/OHM) have publicly backed Budaházy. They believe supporting the campaign to ‘free Budaházy’ is attracting people to its ranks. OHM leader, László Toroczkai, and Budaházy have a long history of working together in various paramilitary and violent street gang movements over the last two decades.

The ‘Budaházy case’ has polarised public opinion along left/right lines. But it is important to understand why key figures in Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian right-wing government are prepared to overturn the rule of law and why large numbers of far-right MPs have been prepared to publicly defend right-wing terrorists. To do this, we must look at this case in the context of the connections between the Fidesz government and sections of the Hungarian state with far-right terrorism and paramilitarism.

Paramilitarism & terrorism

In the post-communist era, Hungary experienced a rapid rise in neo-nazi skinhead gangs, right-wing paramilitary groups and terrorist cells. However, up until the mass anti-government uprisings of 2006, these groups were very much confined to the fringes of society.

In 2006, the release of a transcript of a private speech by Hungary’s social democratic Prime Minister, Ferenc Gyurcsány, changed the situation. In it, he admitted that he had lied to win the election and boasted that his government had achieved nothing in its four years in office. The revelations led to a wave of militant protests that rocked the Hungarian state to its foundations.

Fidesz was not only the main beneficiary of the anti-government protests, it played a central role in them. It worked closely with many far-right gangs and, more importantly Jobbik. This was a fascist party and very much on the fringes of Hungarian politics that came to national prominence by leading the most militant sections of the protests.

By 2007, the anti-government movement had petered out, but its legacy was a seismic shift of Hungarian politics to the right. One element of this shift was the rise of violent far-right terrorism and paramilitarism between 2007 and 2013.

A brief analysis of three of these groups will show how their violent actions were often ignored by sections of the Hungarian state and in some cases, even protected. The most significant group was the paramilitary Hungarian Guard Movement (Magyar Gárda Mozgalom), which was launched by Jobbik.

The Hungarian Guard Movement

Jobbik launched the Hungarian Guard Movement in 2007, claiming 1,500 members. It was a uniformed paramilitary formation attracting support from the ranks of Hungary’s far-right and skinhead gangs. It drew inspiration from the infamous Arrow Cross fascist movement and its main target was the country’s Roma community.

There were two main phases of the Guard’s development, the first between 2007 and 2009, when it focused on mass, mainly symbolic, paramilitary parades and rallies aimed at the Roma population. After a particularly violent demonstration against Roma inhabitants of the village of Tatárszentgyörgy, the authorities banned the Guard. However, the organisation openly flouted the law and Jobbik’s leader, Gábor Vona, turned up to his first day in parliament elected as an MP in full Guard regalia in 2010.

The second phase (2010-2013) involved the Guard moving from mainly symbolic parades to violent marches, often involving several thousand paramilitaries. The Guard also expanded its targets. In 2013, Jobbik supporters wearing full paramilitary uniforms protested outside the World Jewish Congress held in Budapest. The Guard also held protests outside LGBT+ events and targeted well-known anti-fascists.

The political impact of the Guard’s activities was threefold: first, it terrorised Hungary’s Roma population; second, it popularised anti-Roma racism (the Fidesz government would later adopt many of the Guards’ anti-Roma demands). Last, Jobbik used the Guard’s marches as barometers to gauge electoral support in villages and towns. My study of the movement noted that, of 21 Jobbik mayors elected between 2010 and 2018, 16 were in places where Guard protests had taken place.

One other important thing to note is how sections of the Hungarian police force at best ignored the Guard’s activities and at worst supported Jobbik and the Guard. For example, in 2010, it was reported that police officers had formed a union affiliated to Jobbik. In addition, a survey found that 60% of police officers supported Jobbik. Even more shocking was the fact that the police were found guilty of failing to protect the Roma from Guard violence in the village of Gyöngyöspata.

Hungarian Arrows

The Hungarian Arrows National Liberation Army (Magyarok Nyilai Nemzeti Felszabadító Hadsereg) was a far-right terrorist group active in Hungary between 2007 and 2009. It was founded by Budaházy and was responsible for a series of violent attacks, including assaults on social democratic politicians and fire bombings of LGBT+ clubs. These thugs attacked the annual Gay Pride rally in Budapest.

The attacks initiated by this group on Budapest Pride were supported by leading members of Jobbik and Fidesz. Despite definitive evidence of the Arrows’ violence, for nearly two years the police refused to acknowledge its activities.

The Death Squad

The so-called Death Squad (Halálbrigád) was a group of four neo-nazi terrorists: Arpád Kiss, István Kiss, Zsolt Petö and István Csontos. They were responsible for ten attacks on the country’s Roma population between 2008 and 2009, which left six Roma dead and 55 injured. In 2013, three of them were given life sentences and the fourth, Csontos, received a 13-year prison sentence.

Once again, the police refused to acknowledge that these attacks were linked or racially motivated. In an interview, conducted from his prison cell, Arpád Kiss admitted to his crimes, but also claimed that two members of the Squad remained free, even though the police knew their identities. The German newspaper Der Spiegel noted that two of those involved had been under secret surveillance and Csontos was an informant for the military service. He was released from prison last year.

Uneasy friendship

Several political commentators describe Orbán’s Fidesz government as a ‘Mafia State’ – the term far-right authoritarian government is more accurate. In public, Orbán distances himself from parties such as Jobbik and Our Homeland Movement. In reality, his rise to power was aided by Jobbik and the climate of anti-Roma racism promoted by the paramilitaries.

Novák’s decision to pardon seven of Budaházy gang is just the latest example of a state willing to protect some of Europe’s most vile right-wing terrorists.

The uneasy relationship between Orbán, Jobbik and Our Homeland Movement continues today. Orbán cynically uses these extreme right-wing groups for his own ends. They act as political outriders for the regime, help it popularise racism and provide Orbán with a sounding board for his more extreme policies. Orbán also uses these groups as a threat to Europe’s leaders: he cynically states, ‘if you think I’m bad, look what’s waiting in the wings’. l

In the first conviction of its kind against white supremacists, many of the group’s leaders were found guilty of seditious conspiracy. These verdicts will certainly lose the group its lawful kudos, suggests Leonard Zeskind

Proud Boy: EnriqueTarrio         Oath Keeper: Stewart Rhodes

Photo: Anthony Crider

More than two years after a Trump-inspired mob invaded Capitol Hill to stop the peaceful transfer of the presidency to the duly elected Democrat Joe Biden, the legal proceedings are just now drawing to a close. On 6 January 2021, under the patently false banner of ‘Stop the Steal,’ several thousand Make America Great Again nationalists listened in the park to a speech by outgoing President Donald Trump, marched over to Capitol Hill, and then literally broke into Congress, many wielding guns and other weapons.

To date, 948 individuals have been arrested on ‘obstruction of Congress’ and other charges. Some claimed to be motivated by God, others pleaded guilty and genuinely repented. Yet others have not yet reached court. The Republican Party too has more than its fair share of people who continue to claim the presidential election was stolen.

The leaderships of both the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy for their role in leading the mob on the ground. The trials of 11 Oath Keepers were broken into two groups, for the convenience of the overwhelmed federal courts. The trial of five Proud Boys is continuing as Searchlight goes to press.

The seditious conspiracy trial against the first group of Oath Keepers ended in a mixed decision: the Justice Department won two counts of guilty for seditious conspiracy against Oath Keepers boss Stewart Rhodes and his Florida state chapter captain Kelly Meggs. Found not guilty of these charges were Oath Keepers Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell.

All five were, however, found guilty of ‘obstructing an official proceeding’. But just Watkins, from Ohio, and Meggs were convicted of ‘conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding’. Meggs, Harrelson and Watkins were also found guilty of conspiracy to prevent an officer from discharging any duties. Only Watkins was found guilty of civil disorder, and aiding and abetting. The other four were found guilty of tampering with documents.

In the second trial, four of the six defendants were convicted of seditious conspiracy. These were Roberto Minuta, an Oath Keeper from New Jersey, Joseph Hackett, an Oath Keeper recruiter from Florida, David Moerschel also from Florida, and Edward Vallejo, an Arizonan who was a member of a ‘quick response team’, who had stayed in a Virginia hotel during the Capitol riot. All four were also convicted of ‘obstructing Congress’. The remaining two, Brian Ulrich from Georgia and Joshua James from Alabama, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges in April 2022.

No one has been sentenced yet, but all are likely to face significant jail time. This was the first time ever that the Justice Department won a jury case against far-right white supremacists for seditious conspiracy.

A third group of eight Oath Keepers is scheduled to go to trial in February, but in their cases the charges do not include seditious conspiracy.

Bridging role

The Oath Keepers made its mark by recruiting those with law enforcement or military experience. It was incorporated in March 2009, soon after President Obama took office. Although the group conducted militia-like paramilitary training sessions, it served mainly as a bridge between militias and other organisations on the far right. In particular, in those founding years, it tied the newly minted Tea Party with others on the far right.

The chain of command led to Rhodes at the top. It had a board of directors, which included Richard Mack, the one-time Arizona sheriff who now spends his time spreading Posse Comitatus – like hornswoggle wrapped in a Constitution-like blanket. The Oath Keepers grew to include 38,000 members, according to the organisation known as the Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS), which collected data from the group’s various social media platforms.

In addition to burrowing itself deep into mainstream institutions, it spread its wings over much of the gun rights and militia universe. The National Rifle Association (NRA) added an Oath Keepers’ member, Donald Bradway, to its board of directors in August 2021. Indeed, 70 Oath Keepers’ members are NRA-certified firearms instructors, according to Rolling Stone magazine. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that there were 373 Oath Keepers active in law enforcement, 117 who were active military members and 81 who were public officials or running for office in 2020.

What will happen to these individuals? A few may decide their self-possessed conservatism has led them into an outfit whose leadership was anything but lawful and wanted change, not conservation. More might go over to organisations such as the Constitutional Sheriffs and Police Officers Association, in an attempt to maintain the façade of constitutional obligation. Others might go to one of the many explicitly white nationalist shops. The end result will likely be a growth and further radicalisation of the white world.

The combination of these four trials, plus the arrest of more than 900 individuals from the 6 January 2021 attack are having an impact on the far-right movement. Unlike the men and women of the Militia of Montana in the 1990s, they did not ostensibly join an alternative universe where there was no Fourteenth Amendment, and everyone understood that the Confederacy had been right. Oath Keepers members joined an organisation with definable ties to the mainstream. It was a logical next step for them to follow Trump wherever he led. Without Trump, the Oath Keepers may have stayed afloat, but the organisation would not have gone anywhere.

Now the Oath Keepers, and the many who grew up on the far-right flank of respectability, will have a greatly damaged veneer, with an unelectable presidential candidate and seditious conspiracy hung around its neck. These individuals will not disappear – they will continue to grow as more average white people believe their time of dominance has passed.

Past failures

During the Second World War, the Justice Department went after Nazi sympathisers and isolationists. But the sedition charges were dropped in 1943. The next year, with a badly constructed Smith Act that did not require any overt acts for conviction, 30 people were charged with seditious conspiracy. First the Roosevelt and then the Truman Administration let all the charges drop. No Nazi was ever convicted.

In 1988, the Reagan Justice Department tried again. It rounded up 14 white supremacists from among the violent edge of the movement. The all-white jury was picked with less care than the judge would have taken in bringing to trial an interstate auto theft ring. The US Attorney paraded a group of broken down white supremacists as witnesses. James Ellison told how he had been appointed ‘King James’ of the Ozarks. Glenn Miller, once head of the North Carolina-based White Patriot Party, was useless.

All 14 white supremacists were found not guilty. One of the jurors soon married one of the former defendants. A second juror expressed agreement with some of the defendants’ actions. A third told journalists she admired one of the defendants on trial. Ellison went to live at an Identity camp in Oklahoma. And, in 2014, Miller murdered three non-Jewish people while shooting up Jewish community sites in the Kansas City area. He died in prison in 2021.

Proud Boys on trial

On 19 December 2022, a trial for Proud Boys members Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola began in Washington, DC. It took 10 days to seat a jury, indicating that there are few people in the area who have not made up their minds about this organisation. The trial has also been harder fought than those of any of the Oath Keepers.

The Proud Boys were formed in 2016 and have grown quickly, an all male fight club that describes itself as ‘Western Chauvinist’. In practice, they are white supremacist. They added dozens of chapters after the riot on 6 January 2021, and have broken away from former President Trump. They have been in dozens of public fights from Portland Oregon to New York City, and almost everywhere in between. The organisation has already made changes to its structure to allow it to survive federal prosecution – it is likely the Proud Boys will continue to operate, whatever the trial outcome. However, without the Cuban-American Tarrio at the helm, if he is convicted, the outfit is likely to grow more white nationalist.

The far right, led by explicitly white nationalist organisations and individuals, has continued to grow. For example, at the time of the Oath Keepers’ verdict, Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist known for his leadership of the America First Political Action Conference, created a Twitter account. Within less than a day, before he was shut down, he had 130,000 followers .

It will take more than the courts to curb this movement: it will take all of us.

Published in latest issue of Searchlight magazine: Winter 2023

As one of the killers implicated in the 1980 Bologna bombing prepares to appeal his sentence, Alfio Bernabei learns that, in an unprecedented move, the Home Office will not be making public a file linked to the Italian fugitives who fled to London

Lawyers acting for the families of the victims of the Bologna bombing of 2 August 1980 have learnt that a key document in the case held by the British Home Office is to remain closed to the public due to its sensitive nature. It is thought it contains information that could throw light on the movements of former Italian fascist terrorists who took refuge in London soon after the massacre. The bomb killed 85 people, including two Britons, and wounded 200.

The news comes as the much anticipated appeal of one of the fascists accused of the bombing is due to begin in Italy on 19 April. Lawyers acting on behalf of Gilberto Cavallini, 70, a fascist killer with nine life sentences, will seek to overturn the most recent verdict handed out to him by Judge Michele Leoni in January 2020 – another life sentence – for his involvement in the explosion at Bologna railway station.

In the 2,100 pages explaining the sentencing Cavallini stands accused of acting as an accomplice to Francesca Mambro, Valerio Fioravanti and Luigi Ciavardini (all three found guilty of the terrorist act and all sentenced to life imprisonment) by providing them with false papers and giving them hospitality on the eve of the massacre.

A fascist activist since his student days, Cavallini joined the Social Italian Movement (MSI) and proceeded to establish contacts with various nazi-fascist organisations active during the ‘years of lead’: Ordine Nuovo, Avanguardia Nazionale, Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR) and Terza Posizione.

In sentencing him to life, Judge Leone made clear that he considered these organisations not distinct, divergent or separate from one another, but acting in continuity and co-ordination, ‘united even in their contacts with the secret services’ and state institutions, to the extent that the Bologna massacre was to be considered a state massacre (strage di stato).

When Cavallini was arrested in 1983, a diary was found in his possession with the telephone number 342111 marked ‘confidential’, leading investigators to a telephone exchange office in Milan with links to the Italian military secret service, raising suspicions about the existence of secret communications facilities at the disposal of terrorists.

Fifteen years later, further investigations led to a document from the same telephone company naming an employee, Luciana Piras, as attached to an office described as ‘Nato, preordained to activities connected to the protection of State secrets’. Judge Leoni’s sentencing also made references to huge sums of money Cavallini had access to in Switzerland where the notorious Licio Gelli, head of the Masonic Lodge P2, kept secret accounts.

Fiore link

Roberto Fiore

Photo: Sven Teschke

Called to answer questions in May 2021 at the Court of Assizes in Bologna where Paolo Bellini, accused of taking part in the massacre at the station, was subsequently found guilty and given a life sentence, Cavallini opted to remain silent, determined to keep his secrets.

It was during the Bellini trial that a document was produced stating that Cavallini had been in London in April 1981, sharing a flat in Tabor Road with Roberto Fiore, currently the leader of the fascist organisation, Forza Nuova.

The document was described as a ‘phonogram’ sent by the London police branch of Interpol to their counterpart in Rome following investigations on Cavallini and Bellini in London. Dated 10 February 1984, it was referring to events of three years earlier. It did not mention Bellini, but stated that in April 1981 Cavallini and Fiore were sharing the flat in Tabor Road under the false names of Stefano Sorrentino (Fiore) and Stefano De Michelis (Cavallini). They were working as ‘cleaners’, Fiore at the Lansdale Club and Cavallini at the Royal Overseas League, a private club.

The text of the phonogram found its way into the hands of judicial authorities in Italy, but in truncated form. Two lines referring to Cavallini and Fiore’s flat sharing were mysteriously omitted in the Italian translation. Only now has the full content become known after the original in English was tracked down.

Fiore, a leader of Terza Posizione, arrived in London in September 1980 soon after the Bologna bombing to escape from a wave of international arrest warrants. He was later tried in absentia in Italy and was acquitted of any involvement in the bombing, but received a five and a half year jail sentence for armed conspiracy and subversive association.

In 1997, together with another fugitive from justice, Massimo Morsello, member of the NAR, he co-founded the party Forza Nuova in London. Two years later he was able to return to Italy as a free man after his conviction became non-punishable on the statute of limitations.

Fiore has always denied having ever met Cavallini. But, given the existence of this Interpol phonogram stating the opposite and revealing a fake identity, it is likely he will be called to testify during the forthcoming Cavallini appeal.

In this instance, questions will also be raised about another document of potentially even greater significance and one that will produce a disturbing echo for years to come. It consists of a file whose existence has only come to light in the past few weeks thanks to two Italian investigative journalists, Sabrina Provenzani and Stefano Vergine, who published the results of their inquiries in the Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano.

The two journalists attempted to obtain from the Home Office a document marked HO 306/269, headed ‘Extradition Case, Terza Posizione members Roberto Fiore, Marcello De Angelis, Stefano Tiraboschi, and Massimo Morsello’. Both Tiraboschi and De Angelis were among the Italians who arrived in London as fugitives from justice. In most cases, including Fiore’s, the Italian authorities were quick to request extradition to Italy. For some, like , extradition was granted, but it was not for the quartet mentioned in the Home Office file.

This document is said to refer to events dated between 1981 and 1989, and should have been made accessible to the public under the 30-year secrecy rule. However, it remains ‘exempt from disclosure’. The reason given to the journalists is that it would not be appropriate to release information that could compromise national security or reveal the involvement of security agencies.

MI6 approach

On his own admission made in 2018, Fiore was visited by Italian secret service agents while he was in jail in London in 1982. They suggested that if he agreed to collaborate a deal could be struck for his early release if extradited to Italy. ‘I refused,’ said Fiore, who let it be understood that this could not have taken place without the knowledge of the British secret service. Rumours have abounded over the years about Fiore’s alleged recruitment by MI6 in efforts to gather intelligence about training camps in Lebanon for would-be terrorists. No evidence has ever been produced about Fiore visiting that country.

The reason why Fiore volunteered to reveal the attempts by the secret service to recruit him is not clear. It could be interpreted as a way to let it be known that, should any sensitive information about him be delivered to the Italian judiciary, he could divulge the identities and motives of those who tried to turn him informer. If true that he shared a flat with Cavallini who had contacts with the Italian secret service and access to large sums of money, then questions would arise of a potentially sensitive nature for both the British and Italian authorities over the handling of the case for his extradition that was never granted, suggesting that he was being protected.

Bearing in mind the mystery surrounding the business empire that Fiore and Morsello managed to set up in London in such a short time and, in spite of being humble ‘cleaners’, the two journalists looked into Fiore’s apparent continuing ability to raise funds in the UK. They report that one organisation set up more than 20 years ago, the Catholic charity St George Education Trust, remains active and raises large sums of money through crowdfunding. The journalists write: ‘The SGET Telegram channel is run by […] Michael Fishwick and was used to promote a crowdfunding campaign that amassed over £ 100,000 in opaque donations and raised money for Fiore after he was jailed in Italy.’ (A nine-month sentence followed his arrest in Rome in 2021 for taking part in the attack on the offices of the CGIL trade union, thought to have been staged close to the anniversary of Mussolini’s 1922 March on Rome to emulate fascist attacks against trade unions.)

The journalists’ report states that Fiore’s associations with SGET and Fishwick go back to the early 1990s, when both were members of the National Front and, later, the Third Position group. Their association is apparently as strong as ever. The report adds that SGET current accountant is Hugh Williams, a former national treasurer for UKIP. The charity is now under investigation by the Charity Commission over alleged links with ‘extreme right-wing organisations’.

Three years ago, when Italian journalist Giorgio Mottola asked Fiore: ‘How come that a fugitive from justice with an arrest warrant can become rich?’, Fiore replied: ‘There is only one explanation. Help from God.’

A more earthly opinion based on suspicions voiced by Mambro and Fioravanti was recently reiterated by Saverio Ferrari, secretary of the Osservatorio Democratico delle Nuove Destre. He reminded an audience in Milan of the long-standing speculation that some fugitives from justice arrived in London carrying loot accumulated by NAR terrorists. No evidence of this has ever been found.

Searchlight has learnt that a violent anti-Muslim gang, Death Before Dishonour, is operating in Britain’s secure prisons, but its activities are not being taken seriously. Andy Bell and Cathy Pound report

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is in denial over the activities of a violent anti-Muslim gang operating in some of Britain’s most secure prisons. Despite conceding a recent court case which established a litany of racist attacks by the gang, calling itself Death Before Dishonour, and collusion by some prison staff, the MoJ told Searchlight that it was ‘not a live issue’ and could offer no information about the gang’s activities.

Image: Charles Bronson

Death Before Dishonour is concentrated in Close Supervision Centres (CSCs), which house prisoners viewed as highly dangerous, and boasts among its members Charles Bronson, one of the most notoriously violent inmates in the prison system.

The gang first came to public attention briefly in 2016, with media reports that a security briefing had been sent to prison governors warning them of the group’s emergence and advising that it was recruiting particularly in the CSCs as an anti Muslim group in an environment where Muslim prisoners are disproportionately represented.

Image: Injuries sustained by Thakrar from prison officers at Frankland Prison

But the gang’s activities are described in considerable detail in a recently concluded, but unpublished, legal action brought by Kevan Thakrar, a Muslim prisoner who has spent some 12 years in the CSC system and who won his case that he had been systematically threatened and attacked by members of Death Before Dishonour and that the MoJ had failed to protect him.

Thakrar is no angel. In 2007, he and his brother were jailed for three murders that were carried out in the course of a drugs transaction that went wrong. Although his brother actually did the shooting, Thakrar was convicted on the basis of joint enterprise, and received a life sentence with a minimum term of 35 years. Of mixed Scottish and Indian heritage, he became a practising Muslim after his imprisonment.

Thakrar earned the undying enmity of some with the prison service in 2011 when he faced trial in Newcastle for the attempted murder of three prison officers. He had lashed out at them with a broken bottle, injuring all three. One was said to have almost lost an arm.

Thakrar’s defence was that after a long series of assaults by racist prison staff he was fearful for his own safety and lashed out in a pre-emptive attack. The jury, having heard lengthy evidence of his experiences in prison, accepted his defence and acquitted him of all charges. The verdict was publicly attacked by the governor of the prison at the time, and prison staff. After that, Thakrar was moved into the CSC system.

Threats

The Death Before Dishonour attacks started in 2015 when he was moved from Full Sutton prison to Wakefield. The Wakefield CSC already housed Charles Bronson and other Death Before Dishonour members. Bronson was well known for his antipathy to ethnic minority prisoners and especially Muslims.

What started as a campaign of threats and harassment progressed to assaults and attacks where liquids, including urine, were thrown at Thakrar. His lawyers wrote to the prison authorities but nothing was done and the harassment continued over many months.

In November 2016, Bronson threatened Thakrar that he was going to get him. The next day, when Thakrar was walking past the gym, Bronson emptied a bottle of faeces and urine over him. Prison officers had done nothing to stop Bronson taking the bottle to the gym.

Bronson revels in the reputation of being one of the most violent, dangerous prisoners in a British jail. His real name is Michael Peterson, which he changed to Bronson after the American film actor in 1987, when he was released from prison and was embarking on a career as a bare knuckle boxer.

His freedom was short – the following year he was jailed again, this time for armed robbery. More recently he changed name again, to Charles Salvador, as a ‘tribute’ to the artist Salvador Dali, as he tried to establish a reputation for himself as an artist. Bronson has spent many years in segregation and taken hostages in prisons on several occasions. His ‘celebrity’ resulted in a feature film about his life, with Tom Hardy in the starring role.

After the attack on Thakrar, Bronson was brought up on a charge before the prison governor, but the hearing was conducted without Thakrar present and Bronson was found not guilty. Only one month later another Death Before Dishonour member, Douglas Gary Vinter, said to have been one of the gang’s founders, threatened Thakrar and spat on him in the presence of some 15 prison officers, yet still nothing was done.

A move to Woodhill prison CSC in 2017 did nothing to stop the threats and harassment, and Thakrar’s solicitors were forced again to write to the prison authorities complaining about his treatment. This led, in August 2017, to an admission from the Ministry of Justice that he was indeed being racially harassed and to the conviction of another prisoner for abusing him.

After a couple more moves, Thakrar ended up in Long Lartin in early 2018. Vinter was also there and continued to threaten and abuse him, telling him that the gang would get him at the first opportunity. On one occasion, a Death Before Dishonour member was allowed to use a shower room next to the visitor area and shouted threats and abuse at members of Thakrar’s family.

The attacks reached a climax in Full Sutton prison to which Thakrar was moved in September 2019. First, he was attacked by a prisoner linked to Death Before Dishonour, who assaulted him with a metal flask of hot water. Then, in December, he was stabbed three times by prisoner Kevin McCarthy who shouted ‘Die, die, die’, as he attacked him.

GBH

McCarthy’s name had been included on a list of alleged gang members previously sent to the Full Sutton prison authorities by Thakrar’s solicitors. McCarthy subsequently pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to a further two years’ imprisonment.

Thakrar sued the MoJ and the case was concluded in November, with the MoJ offering no defence. The judge ruled that the ministry had ‘failed to protect [Thakrar] from racist and religiously motivated abuse and assaults from other prisoners in the … Close Supervision Centre and segregation units including at HMP Woodhill, HMP Wakefield, HMP Whitemoor, HMP Full Sutton and HMP Belmarsh between March 2012 and December 2019 and failed to properly investigate the same’.

Yet, when Searchlight approached the MoJ for information about Death Before Dishonour in January, we were told that this was ‘not currently a live issue’ and that there was no further assistance they could offer us.

The Prison Officers’ Association, some of whose members were accused of colluding with the gang in attacks on Thakrar, also pleaded ignorance. ‘This is not something we are aware of,’ it said, referring us back to the MoJ. It would appear that the activities of Death Before Dishonour are still not being investigated, or even taken seriously.

Bronson, one of Thakrar’s main persecutors, is currently applying for parole, which will be considered at a public hearing in March. It will be interesting to see whether his campaign against Thakrar – and his involvement in Death Before Dishonour – will be considered a ‘live issue’ by the Parole Board.