Co-founder of neo-Nazi group National Action is charged with membership of a terrorist organisation
- Ben Raymond, 31, was arrested by West Midlands Police on Tuesday in Swindon
- Police said he was questioned for three days at a Wiltshire police station
- He is facing four charges including membership of a terrorist organisation
- Police confirmed he will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 28
The co-founder of neo-Nazi group National Action has today been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation.
Ben Raymond, 31, from Swindon, has also been charged with three counts of possessing material likely to be useful to a terrorist organisation.
Raymond will appear in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 28.
Ben Raymond, 31, from Swindon, has been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation and three counts of possessing material likely to be useful to terrorists
He will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on April 28, file photograph
He was arrested and interviewed by West Midlands Police at a police station in Wiltshire.
He was questioned under caution and Tuesday, Wednesday and today when he was charged with terror offences.
The decision by the Government to ban National Action came into force in December 2016, making membership of the group a criminal offence carrying a sentence of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
At the time the ban was brought in, the Home Office said the neo-Nazi group was the first far-right organisation to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
Later, the government extended the ban to include Scottish Dawn and NS131 which had been identified as aliases for National Action.
Under the Terrorism Act 2000, the Home Secretary can issue an order that an alternative name or alias is to be treated as another name for a banned organisation.
Decisions about proscribing or extending the proscription of a particular organisation are taken after extensive consideration and in light of a full assessment of available information, the Home Office said.
In the official list of proscribed groups, National Action is described as a ‘racist neo-Nazi group’ that was established in 2013.
The group is ‘virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic’ and its activities and propaganda materials are particularly aimed at recruiting young people, according to the document.