Three British Army members have been charged with terror offences including being members of a banned neo-Nazi organisation.
Army members Alex Deakin, 22, Mark Barrett, 24, and Mikko Vevhilainnen, who is 32 and originally from Finland, are all accused of being members of National Action.
It comes after police swooped on Army bases in the UK and further afield last week and arrested five suspects linked with the far-right activist group.
Four alleged members of banned neo-Nazi group National Action have been arrested on suspicion of preparing acts of terror (file pic)
Deakin, from Coventry, has been charged with being a National Action member, possessing and distributing terrorist material, as well as inciting racial hatred after National Action stickers were plastered around Aston University campus.
Fitness instructor Vehvilainen, who is now based at Sennybridge Camp, Brecon, Powys, is also accused of being in National Action, having terrorist documents, publishing racist material online and possessing pepper spray.
Barrett, from Northampton, faces a sole count of being part of National Action.
The arrests were last week carried out with the West Midlands Counter-Terrorism Unit in conjunction with the Wales Extremism Counter-Terrorism Unit and the East Midlands Counter-Terrorism Intelligence Unit.
The force said a man from Northampton and another from Ipswich, both aged 24, were released without charge on Saturday following inquiries.
Barrett was arrest at the Dhekelia Garrison, in Cyprus, where he is stationed, and all three will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.
The organisation, linked to the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, was described by the Home Office as ‘virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic’ and eager to see the UK embroiled in a ‘violent race war’.
It was proscribed under powers outlawing the glorification of terrorism – meaning it is a crime, punishable by a maximum ten years in prison, to be a member or supporter of the organisation.
National Action had links to Thomas Mair, the 54-year-old white supremacist who murdered Mrs Cox outside her constituency surgery in Birstall, West Yorkshire, in June 2016.
The loner received a whole-life sentence after being convicted of the killing, which was described by prosecutors as a terrorist attack.
His only statement given in court was ‘Death to traitors, freedom for Britain’, the slogan on National Action’s former website.
National Action endorsed the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by Thomas Mair (pictured right)
After the killing, the group posted vile messages including, ‘Our thoughts go out to Thomas Mair’ and ‘Don’t let this man’s sacrifice go in vain. Jo Cox would have filled Yorkshire with more subhumans.’ Another read: ‘Only 649 MPs to go.’
Home Secretary Amber Rudd banned the group after an assessment that it was ‘concerned in terrorism’ before Mair’s trial.
The group also made headlines for hosting a ‘Miss Hitler’ contest and for posting pictures online of them performing Nazi salutes at the Buchenwald Camp in Germany, where 50,000 people died in the Second World War.
In February, just three months after the ban, anti-extremist campaign group Hope not Hate reported National Action was continuing to operate ‘in all but name and poses a serious terrorist threat’.
Last month the charity said the group was actively recruiting and training from a converted warehouse it had rented in Warrington, Cheshire.
Neighbours said a dozen members regularly trained inside using knives and baseball bats.
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