Four active duty members of the British Army have been arrested, under the country’s anti-terror laws, on alleged involvement in a banned neo-nazi group.
Along with a fifth person, a civilian, they are suspected of being members of National Action, the first far-right group to be banned in the U.K. for promoting violence and terrorist acts, reports BBC News.
Police said that no public safety threat was involved.
“We can confirm that a number of serving members of the Army have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for being associated with a proscribed far-right group,” a spokesperson for the British Army told the BBC.
One of the arrested soldiers was detained in a U.K. military base in Cyprus, reports the BBC, while the others were being held in a police station in West Midlands.
National Action is described by anti-terror officials as “explicitly neo-Nazi.” British Home Secretary Amber Rudd called it “a racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic organization” when she announced its ban last December.
Being members of a proscribed group, or merely inviting support for one, carries up to 10 years’ imprisonment in the U.K. if convicted, the BBC says.
[BBC]
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