Massive legal victory for the Nordic Resistance Movement!

By Fredrik Vejdeland – December 29, 2020

RESISTANCE MOVEMENT. The Tyr rune has been declared a legal symbol, and the Nordic Resistance Movement’s freedom of assembly, expression and association will not be restricted, according to a Swedish court of appeal. Fredrik Vejdeland comments on the verdict.

On 18 December, the Court of Appeal acquitted the 14 people who had been charged with incitement to racial hatred for having participated in the Nordic Resistance Movement’s demonstration in Gothenburg in 2017.

The fact that the Court of Appeal upheld the District Court’s acquittal not only means that several accused persons, including myself, were found not guilty of absurd accusations – it also means that the Nordic Resistance Movement has won a major legal victory and that the ongoing attempt to ban us in Sweden has failed for the time being. Future attempts have also been made considerably more difficult.

To give a very brief recap, the Gothenburg Trials have concerned the Nordic Resistance Movement’s use of the Old Norse Tyr rune, the fact that we “marched in line” at the Gothenburg demonstration, that our uniformed clothing etc. in combination with our demonstrations made us “reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s”, and that those of us accused for these reasons should be convicted of incitement to racial hatred.

However, the trial has been about more than just that. In reality, the indictment was about a ban of the Nordic Resistance Movement, which prosecutor Jonas Martinsson revealed in the Court of Appeal. Under such a ruling, they would still allow us to be National Socialists – which is kind of them – but we would not be able to hold public meetings or propagate our message. In other words, no activity and thus, in practice, a ban. For more reading on this topic, and the background to the continued ongoing attempts to ban us, I recommend Pär Öberg’s article Round Two of the Gothenburg Trials.

But things didn’t go the way our opponents wanted. Following a very clear and well-defined district court judgment, the verdict has now also been upheld by the Court of Appeal. This means an important legal victory for the Nordic Resistance Movement, as well as a gigantic failure for the forces that wanted to ban us – from the World Jewish Congress, which demanded a ban during a personal meeting with Morgan Johansson; to the lackey Morgan Johansson himself, who promised to do all in his power to assist them; to the corrupt police chiefs Klas Friberg and Erik Nord, who both did a terrible job; to the tired prosecutor “Sleepy Joe” Martinsson; and not least to the Jewish organisation Civil Rights Offenders, which wrote the indictment itself.

Together, they have spent a lot of time, wasted a lot of taxpayers’ money and had high hopes that the Swedish courts would be completely compromised – all of it in vain.

Their resulting distress appears to be total. Yesterday I heard an interview with Civil Rights Defenders representative John Stauffer, in which he sounded like he was starting to cry. It was refreshing to listen to, but you almost couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor fellow. Morgan Johansson has not yet commented. What will he say to his bosses at the World Jewish Congress? That he is completely incompetent?

Meanwhile, the state’s propaganda apparatus is seemingly living in some kind of parallel reality in which they cannot accept the outcome. The Kungälvs-Posten newspaper is writing about the “Nazi Tyr rune”, despite the Court of Appeal having just established that the Tyr rune is in essence not a National Socialist symbol. Then there are non-entities like Atle Morseth Edvinson at Aftonbladet, who are making statements such as “everything the NRM does is incitement to racial hatred”, a claim that contradicts applicable law and case law.

The facts supporting our positions are irrefutable. The Chancellor of Justice, the Gothenburg District Court, the Lower Norrland Court of Appeal and now the Court of Appeal for Western Sweden have ruled that the Tyr rune is a lawful symbol and that the Nordic Resistance Movement as an organisation does not constitute a carbon copy of the NSDAP, or that we as an organisation must take the blame for any impropriety that occurred in Germany 80 years ago.

So what happens now? As the courts and the judiciary have had their say, all that remains is to try to ban the Nordic Resistance Movement with the help of the politically appointed parliamentary group that is currently conducting its investigation.

If this group is to succeed in getting a ban passed, they must disregard the constitution, ignore the courts and case law, and walk all over all legal experts who have said that it’s impossible to ban the Nordic Resistance Movement. If they dare to do this, it will be very clear that it is a political decision – taken by the corrupt criminals who are in power in order to prohibit criticism of them. And there are enough supporters of freedom of speech and opponents of the power-holders in Sweden to reduce their credibility and that of the country.

Another aggravating circumstance on their part is that they do not seem to agree on how to proceed, or in what way the Nordic Resistance Movement constitutes an illegal organisation. One moment they talk about “violent extremism”, then “terrorism”, then “racial persecution”, which seems to be their latest gambit. If they manage to push this through with the help of what amounts to “fact interpretation” on steroids, it will have a wide-ranging effect – which will mean even more resistance. Had it been clear that the Nordic Resistance Movement was an illegal organisation, they would have already had a case; instead they’re floundering – the result of which will follow accordingly.

Now that the case is over (unless the prosecutor takes it to the Supreme Court and gives our side further advantageous precedents that will benefit us for a long time to come), I can suggest what the system should have done:

You should have avoided this judicial process, as it only made things difficult for you and benefited us. Instead, you should have pursued the current political investigation from the beginning, when it was still a hot topic and many people could have been drawn into the hysteria – or at least wouldn’t have dared to question it. The right time was 2017. It should be remembered that the mainstream media did a fantastic job of agitating against the Gothenburg demonstration and pushing for bans that year. It was the most heinous campaign I’ve ever seen – incredibly well coordinated, timed and executed. You should have used this momentum, but because you dilly-dallied and messed things up, that time is over, and it will take a long time before an optimal opportunity like that comes around again. Such things can be difficult, but better luck next time.

For the Nordic Resistance Movement, the struggle continues. With or without a ban.