National Action: Great Barr neo-Nazi suspect denies terror charges
A Great Barr man accused of being a member of a banned neo-Nazi group has denied charges under anti-terror laws.
Alexander Deakin today appeared alongside two soldiers at Birmingham Crown Court, where he pleaded not guilty to one count of distributing a terrorist publication named ‘ethnic cleansing operations’ via the internet chat service Skype.
The 23-year-old, of Beacon Road, also denied two charges of possessing a document containing terrorist information, including one describing itself as a ‘white resistance’ manual, on dates between 2014 and 2017.
Deakin, Lance Corporal Mikko Vevhilainen and Private Mark Barrett have not yet been asked to enter a plea to a charge alleging they were members of the banned group National Action.
Vevhilainen pleaded not guilty to two counts of stirring up racial hatred and one count of possessing a document containing information likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.
Vevhilainen, aged 33 and previously based at an army camp in Sennybridge in Powys, appeared at the same court via a prison videolink.
He is alleged to have stirred up racial hatred in April and September 2016 by publishing threatening written material on a website.
Vevhilainan, Deakin and 24-year-old Barrett, who was stationed at a barracks in Cyprus, are next due to appear in court on February 19.
National Action was the first far-right group to be banned by the Home Office, in 2016.
The group was founded in 2013 and three years later was labelled a terrorist group by the Government, making it illegal for people to be members.
The group is described as a terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it a criminal offence to support or be a member after Friday, December 16, 2016, and is the only non-Islamic banned group in the UK.
