Klas Lund
Klas Henrik Pontus Lund (born 14 February 1968) is a Swedish neo-Nazi and since 2019 the leader of the combat organisation Nordic Strength.[1]
Klas Lund | |
|---|---|
| Born | Klas Henrik Pontus Lund 14 February 1968 |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Known for | Founder of the White Aryan Resistance, Nordic Resistance Movement and Nordic Strength |
Lund was previously a founder of White Aryan Resistance (VAM) in 1990, and leader of the Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR) from 1997, now part of the wider movement known as the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR). He has convictions for bank robbery and manslaughter.[2]
Biography
Lund was sentenced to four years in prison for the manslaughter of Ronny Landin in 1986, who had intervened against an attack against three immigrants in Nynäshamn. He was released after two years in prison.[2]
In 1990, Lund and two others founded the White Aryan Resistance, an underground racist group that became a centre for some of Sweden's most militant far-right extremists.[2] He also ran a skinhead office at Fryshuset which functioned as a recruiting base for VAM.[3]
In 1991 he was sentenced to six years in prison for a bank robbery in Vemdalen,[2] in which members of VAM used weapons from a heist against a police station in Lidingö. He has also been convicted for abuse and several times for illegal possession of weapons.[4] He founded the Swedish Resistance Movement and became its first leader in 1997. He was the leader of the group until 2015.[5]
In October 2004 he escaped from the prison in Mariestad, where he served six months for illegal possession of weapons.[2] He was not apprehended until March 2005, in Kristiansand, Norway.[6]
Nordic Strength
In August 2019 several of the leading members of NMR broke out and established the paramilitary organisation Nordic Strength, with Lund as the leader. The reason was that they considered the NMR's political strategy not sufficiently radical. The breakaway group describes itself as an elite combat organisation with tough physical requirements on its members.[7][8]
References
- Baas, David (13 August 2019). "Oro för mer våld efter nazisternas splittring". Expressen (in Swedish).
- Flood, Linda (21 December 2013). "Gun-Britts son blev offer för nazistvåldet". Expressen (in Swedish).
- "Samordnat tillslag mot ledande nazister". Expo (in Swedish). 25 November 2003. Archived from the original on 22 August 2010.
- "Vit makt-organisationer i Sverige". Göteborgs-Posten (in Swedish). 30 July 2011. Archived from the original on 12 April 2013.
- "Nordiska motståndsrörelsen (NMR)". Expo (in Swedish). 19 September 2022.
- "Klas Lund gripen i Norge". Dagens Nyheter (in Swedish). 23 March 2005.
- Folkö, Robin; Leman, Jonathan (20 August 2019). "Nya nazistgruppens innersta krets – fälld för över 100 brott". Expo (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 25 January 2021.
- Kasurinen, Anton; Leman, Jonathan (27 February 2020). "Här är nazisternas nya högkvarter - ett tidigare församlingshus". Expo (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 6 January 2022.