(Washington) A former leader of the American neo-Nazi group “Atomwaffen Division” was sentenced Tuesday to seven years in prison for participating in a campaign of intimidation against journalists and anti-racist activists.
Posted at 4:10 p.m. yesterday
Kaleb Cole, 25, with three other members of the group had made posters adorned with Nazi symbols and Molotov cocktails and sent them in January 2020 to the homes of several reporters, often Jewish or minority, and activists, according to a statement. of the Ministry of Justice.
During his trial in federal court in Seattle in the fall, his victims recounted the impact of this campaign of intimidation: some have moved, installed alarms, bought a gun or left the profession of journalist, according to the ministry. .
His three accomplices preferred to enter into guilty plea agreements with prosecutors, which allowed them to have less severe sentences.
One of them was sentenced to 3 years in prison, another 16 months. A judge even spared the last one from prison, a transgender man having concealed his identity from his associates, believing that he had had a sufficiently difficult life until then.
A fifth “Atomwaffen Division” official, John Denton, was sentenced in May to three years and five months in prison after pleading guilty to “threats” and “name calling”.
For his part, he had taken part in a massive “swatting” campaign which consisted in making malicious telephone calls to move American police emergency response units (SWATs) to the addresses of third parties.
Conducted between October 2018 and February 2019, it targeted 134 sites, including an African-American church, an Islamic center and journalists.