Austrian Identitarian arrested again in UK

The Austrian Identitarian leader Martin Sellner was arrested and deported last month, along with his American girlfriend Brittany Pettibone, after he tried to enter England to speak at Speakers’ Corner.

He tried to enter the UK again this week, and was once again arrested and interned.

An Identitarian conference was held in London over the weekend, to which speakers from across Europe had been invited. Martin Sellner was supposed to appear as a guest speaker. However, he and Abel Bodi were arrested on Friday evening in the UK.

This was reported by the English branch of the Identitarian Movement. Sellner was allegedly prevented from entering the country by the border police and is now in police custody.

Shortly before, Abel Bodi, head of the Hungarian Identitarians, had been prevented from entering England.

The government of the United Kingdom is said to have declared him persona non grata. He was expected to report on the political situation and his political involvement in Hungary.

The conference went ahead on Sunday, even without the two prominent speakers.

Sellner was arrested a month ago when he arrived in England because he wanted to give a speech at the “Speakers Corner” in London about freedom of speech.

GI already have bases in 13 European countries, with the largest operations in Germany, France and Austria, where some branches have their own gyms, bars and restaurants.

Support for GI increased markedly after the spate of terror attacks across Europe last year as well as over concerns about the thousands of migrants flooding Europe.

The group raised large sums of money last summer to set sail on the Mediterranean in a bid to obstruct NGO vessels from ferrying migrants to the EU from North Africa. They were forced to abandon their project after a crowd-funding company cancelled their account.

The English chapter has staged several stunts to the UK, including mounting a banner on Westminster bridge stating “Stop Islamisation” and dressing as London’s Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan and asking people to sign a petition to “ban Christmas”.

A counter-protest over the weekend was organised by the Anti Fascist Network. They said they will be “monitoring venues” in London and “hoping to catch them at it”.

On an event page for the counter-protest, the Anti-Fascist Network wrote: “They are keeping a very close guard on the venue and access to the event for obvious reasons … they are scared and know that a vast majority of people in the UK wouldn’t stand for the nonsense they stand for.

“We will be monitoring venues and hoping to catch them at it … We will arrange a meet and action on the day in central London regardless of whether they crawl out from under a rock or not.”