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| Britain |
| (PC) Barclays bank closes far-right party's accounts |
| 2004-07-16 |
| Barclays bank is closing five accounts linked to the far-right British National Party, a source said Friday, one day after a television documentary purported to show a party member confessing to a racist attack on an Asian man. On Monday, the bank will close the five accounts held either by the party or its officials, the source said on condition of anonymity. The person did not know how much money was in the accounts. BNP chairman Nick Griffin called the move "absolutely scandalous," saying his party might now have trouble opening accounts with other banks. He also threatened legal action, claiming that Barclays had violated European Union human rights regulations. Police said Thursday they would investigate allegations of racist crimes arising from the British Broadcasting Corp. documentary. A BBC reporter spent six months undercover with the BNP, which advocates sending immigrants back to their homelands. The documentary, broadcast Thursday, showed what it said was BNP member Steve Barkham confessing to the alleged racial attack during race riots in Bradford, northern England, in 2001. Three white men and the victim were later convicted of assault, but Barkham escaped prosecution. In other BBC footage, Griffin tells a meeting that Islam is a "vicious, wicked faith" and suggests that the rape of non-Muslim women by Muslim men was one way the religion spread. Another BNP member, Stewart Williams, was filmed telling reporter Jason Gwynne that he wanted to "blow up" Bradford's mosques with a rocket launcher. Griffin told the BBC that Barkham and Dave Midgley, another BNP member who bragged on tape about pushing excrement through the mail slot in the door of a Pakistani restaurant, had been expelled from the party. Williams would face an internal disciplinary committee, he said. The BNP is only a marginal political force, holding just over a dozen seats on local councils in England. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #1 That's fine. Now if only they'll apply the same standards to the Left and the islamonazis (but I repeat myself). |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2004-07-16 9:13:43 PM |