Portuguese police arrest 37 suspected ultra-right operatives for hate crimes |
Portuguese police on Tuesday arrested 37 people suspected of belonging to an ultra-right group responsible for hate crimes, with links to similar international groups, in a large operation that involved around 300 officers.
“Those detained … promoted Nazi ideology, inherent to the national-socialist culture and the radical and violent extreme right, acting out of racist and xenophobic motives with the aim of intimidating, persecuting and assaulting ethnic minorities, namely immigrants,” the Judicial Police said in a statement.
Searches found weapons of different kinds and neo-Nazi propaganda materials.
The 37 suspects had “extensive criminal records and links to international groups that promote hate,” the judicial police said in a statement, adding that 15 people had been formally charged.
The victims were mostly immigrants from Muslim-majority countries in South Asia, according to local media.
Police sources said the group in question was “1143,” named after the year........