Britain: Police officer convicted of involvement in a neo-Nazi organization

A British policeman has been convicted of involvement in a banned neo-Nazi organization and possession of extremist material, including the manifesto of Norwegian butcher Anders Behring Breivik.

Benjamin Hannam, 22, a police officer on probation at the London Metropolitan Police, is believed to be the first British police officer to be convicted of terrorism.

He was found guilty of participating in National Action, an extreme right-wing organization banned in 2016 after approving the murder of Joe Cox, the bulletin that was murdered by a man with Nazi beliefs.

It was the first far-right organization to be banned in Britain after World War II. In 2018, one of its members pleaded guilty to plotting to assassinate another MP with a sword and threatening to kill a police officer.

Hannam was also convicted by a London court of lying to police and possessing documents related to terrorism, police said.

The 22-year-old even pleaded guilty to other charges of possessing obscene photos of a child.

Hanam’s sentence, which has been made available, will be announced on April 23.

His relationship with National Action dates back to the beginning of 2016, six months before it was outlawed, but he continued to be involved in the NS131 organization and its branch after the ban, Richard Smith, its leader, told reporters. London Counter-Terrorism Service.

Benjamin Hannam lied, denying any involvement with an extreme right-wing organization in his application to join the Metropolitan Police, which he submitted in 2018.

His colleagues discovered his involvement in February 2020, following leaks from members of an extreme right-wing online forum, Iron March, where he participated under the pseudonym “Anglisc”.

Hannam was arrested a month later at his home, where police discovered a notebook with references to the far-right organization, a guide to the use of knives and weapons and the Breivik manifesto, which killed 77 people in 2011 in Norway.

Smith said citizens would be concerned as a member of a banned organization managed to join the police, but noted that the body acted quickly as soon as Hannam’s past was revealed.

He stressed that the inspections carried out in the incidents that the 22-year-old undertook did not reveal anything wrong with him, nor did his colleagues express any concerns about his behavior.