Brussels – Five young Belgian soldiers are under investigation for Holocaust denial, glorification of Nazi ideas, incitement to hatred and xenophobic, Islamophobic and antisemitic 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.
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.
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.
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.
