Mf Dnes: Neo-Nazi group planned terrorist attacks

Photo: Mf Dnes, 5. 11. 2009

A group of neo-Nazis named White Justice were planning audacious terrorist attacks on several targets in the Czech Republic, Mladá fronta Dnes reported on Tuesday. The extremist group was preparing both kidnappings and attacks on public facilities, the newspaper said. Some of White Justice’s members had been arrested two weeks ago by the Czech police’s organized crime unit. Radio Prague discussed the case with the man who broke the story, Mladá fronta reporter Janek Kroupa.

“They were planning to attack highly-positioned Jews in the Czech Republic, and they were talking about attacks on energy facilities in the country as well.”

How close were the extremists to actually executing their plans?

“It’s hard to say. They certainly had very good theoretical knowledge to do that and they had plans of a Czech power plant. They had good training from the so-called fight camps; they were trained by a professional soldier so I believe at least capable of doing such things.”

The organized crime unit of the Czech police arrested 24 people two weeks ago in connection with right-wing extremism. Were these people involved in the terror group?

“At least 11 of them. They were really well hidden and the level of conspiracy was very high. They worked in little cells of four or five people, and they didn’t know more than three or four people around each person.”

You planted you own man inside the White Justice community. Was that the key to discovering their plans, and did you share the information you obtained with the police?

“We didn’t get too far with my man. He introduced himself to the heads of White Justice but we didn’t have that much information at that point, and we couldn’t go further with my man because we would have to break the law.”

Is your material based on what your man within the community told you and on interviews you conducted with the people who were detained by the police and later released, or is it based on police investigation as well?

“We used all the sources you’ve mentioned. Thanks to the information of my man we could find the people and we knew where they lived and we knew what they were planning to do. I have actually talked to at least three of the extremists who were willing to speak. Their leader did not in fact speak to the police but he spoke to us because he realised that his fellow members were telling on him and he didn’t want to have all the guilt upon him. And we of course asked the police for information but they weren’t as open as we would have liked.”

Was the White Justice community an isolated group, or are other extremist organizations also planning such terrorist attacks?

“I think this group was the most radical that I have come across. But I believe that they were copying the RAF – the Rotte Armee Fraktion from Germany, and their model of operating. So they have a political party [the Workers’ Party]; some of the people who went through the training and learnt how to attack people, they were also members of the party. So they are similar to ETA, IRA or RAF.”