Five young Belgian soldiers are under investigation for Holocaust denial, glorification of Nazi ideas, incitement to hatred and xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic remarks.
The investigation was launched in 2021 after Belgium's State Security services discovered that one of the five young men had taken a shooting course in Poland with a private organisation suspected of having links to the far-right, Sudinfo reports.
Initially this raised suspicions that a terrorist act was being planned, but the investigation and searches ruled out this possibility.
The five used Messenger, Telegram, Whatsapp and the dark web for online communication, but some comments were also posted on Facebook.
'Immaturity and peer pressure'
In their group chats – which had names such as 'Auschwitz' and 'Hitler did nothing wrong' – they exchanged hateful comments and violent videos. They also filmed themselves doing the Hitler salutes and drawing swastikas in the army barracks. They are also suspected of harassing one of their black colleagues in the army.
Belgium's Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, Unia, has also filed a complaint.
Before the court in Charleroi, some of them defended themselves by speaking of their young age, immaturity, ignorance of historical facts, stupidity and peer pressure – aiming to be acquitted, which would allow them to avoid the stigma and consequences of a public trial.
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The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, however, is not in favour of this, and neither is Unia.
In the meantime, the army has suspended the five young soldiers pending the outcome of court proceedings. If they are found guilty, the army is expected to start a disciplinary procedure, which could result in them being dropped from the ranks.
