LONDON: A man accused of being a member of a white supremacist group campaigning to start a race war in Britain pleaded guilty on Tuesday to plotting to kill an elected Member of Parliament (MP).
Jack Renshaw, 23, admitted buying a machete described by its manufacturer as “19 inches of unprecedented piercing and slashing power at a bargain price”, for the purpose of killing opposition Labour MP Rosie Cooper.
Renshaw also pleaded guilty to making a threat to kill a female police officer.
He was one of six alleged members of the far-right extremist group National Action appearing at London’s Old Bailey court.
All six deny membership of National Action, which was banned in 2016 following the murder of Jo Cox, another female Labour MP, in a frenzied street attack by a Nazi-obsessed loner.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson told the jury that Renshaw had targeted Cooper, who represents the West Lancashire constituency in northwestern England, because he regarded her as supporting immigration — also the reason given for the murder of Cox.
Atkinson said Renshaw was undeniably planning violent actions “which involved politically and racially motivated murder”.
One of the other defendants, Christopher Lythgoe, 32, stands accused of giving Renshaw his blessing, on behalf of National Action, to carry out the planned murder of Cooper. Lythgoe has denied the charge.
Atkinson said Renshaw had informed alleged fellow members of National Action during a meeting in a pub in July 2017 that he planned to murder Cooper and had already bought a machete.
While Renshaw planned to carry out the murder on behalf of National Action, he was also motivated by a desire to seek revenge against a police officer, Victoria Henderson, who had previously been involved in arresting him on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred and separately on child sex offenses.
“Renshaw explained that after killing Rosie Cooper he would take some people hostage and then demand ... that DC Henderson should come to the scene,” Atkinson said.
“His plan then would be to kill that officer who, he said, was his real target.”
Lythgoe was in effect the leader of National Action and gave his approval to Renshaw’s plan, the court heard. The defendants, it was alleged, were part of the northwest branch of National Action and attended a gym to help them train for race war.
“The primary purpose of National Action remained the desire to start a race war and to free white Britain from Jewish control and the proliferation of ethnic minorities,” Atkinson said.
But the defendants were not being prosecuted for their beliefs, he added.
“They are being prosecuted for their participation in a banned organization that sought through fear, intimidation and the threat of violence rather than through free speech and democracy to shape society in accordance with those racist and neo-Nazi beliefs,” he said.
Alleged UK neo-Nazi admits buying 19-inch machete to kill lawmaker
Alleged UK neo-Nazi admits buying 19-inch machete to kill lawmaker
- Renshaw was one of six alleged members of the far-right extremist group
- Renshaw explained that after killing Rosie Cooper he would take some people hostage and then demand
Zelensky says Russia using Belarus territory to circumvent Ukrainian defenses
- While President Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Russia was using ordinary apartment blocks on the territory of its ally Belarus to attack Ukrainian targets and circumvent Kyiv’s defenses.
The Kremlin used Belarusian territory to launch its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and Belarus remains a steadfast ally, though longstanding President Alexander Lukashenko has vowed to commit no troops to the conflict.
“We note that the Russians are trying to bypass our defensive interceptor positions through the territory of neighboring Belarus. This is risky for Belarus,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram after a military staff meeting.
“It is unfortunate that Belarus is surrendering its sovereignty in favor of Russia’s aggressive ambitions.”
Zelensky said Ukrainian intelligence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks “in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings.
“Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-story apartment buildings, which help guide ‘Shaheds’ (Russian drones) to targets in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives, and it is important that Minsk stops playing with this.”
The Russian and Belarusian defense ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Zelensky said the staff meeting also discussed ways of financing interceptor drones, which officials in Kyiv see as the best economically viable means of tackling Russian drone attacks, which have grown in intensity in recent months.
The president said the Ukrainian military’s general staff had been charged with working out changes to strategy in fending off air attacks “to defend infrastructure and frontline positions.”
Lukashenko this month said Russia’s Oreshnik ballistic missile system, described by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin as impossible to intercept, had been deployed to Belarus and entered active combat duty.
An assessment by two US researchers, reported by Reuters on Friday, said Moscow was likely stationing the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik at a former air base in eastern Belarus, a development that could bolster Russia’s ability to deliver missiles across Europe.
