The Alcoi court, which has been investigating a far-right group for years, has decided to open oral proceedings against five of its members for trying to form an alleged political party aimed at spreading hatred, violence and discrimination. The five defendants will be tried for hate crimes, sometimes linked to public order disturbances, but not for the crime of illicit association for which they were initially accused.
Operation Ario dismantled this far-right group in the first weeks of 2022 with several arrests in the Valencian Community but also in Madrid and Catalonia. An investigation that, in principle, persecuted the perpetrators of an arson attack on an LGTBI establishment in the city of Alicante and the dissemination of Nazi propaganda through a WhatsApp group, blogs and various profiles on the Internet. The possession of weapons by one of them and the planning of surveillance of left-wing political figures were also investigated.
The group, according to the investigation into the case, met in 2020 in a WhatsApp group called “NacionalDemocrata” in which, under the appearance of creating a far-right political party, they actually aimed to “promote hatred, violence and discrimination” against Jews, homosexuals or blacks. As well as planning acts of violence that were never committed. “Promoting violent acts of a political nature, although there is no evidence that they committed any of them,” the judge said in the indictment.
The court has now taken a further step and decreed the opening of an oral trial against them, which will be held in the Alicante court. The crime of illicit association which was initially attributed to them is dismissed and the trial will focus on hate crimes in various forms, including “the denial and trivialization of the Jewish genocide” as well as disturbances to public order.
