Leader in International Neo-Nazi Group Indicted for Soliciting Hate Crimes and Mass Violence

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced last week the federal indictment of the leader of an international neo-Nazi group. The press release said in part:

A federal grand jury in Brooklyn yesterday returned a four-count indictment charging Georgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, also known as ... “Commander Butcher” ... with soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence in New York City.  Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Chișinău, Moldova on July 6, 2024 pursuant to an Interpol Wanted Person Diffusion.... Chkhikvishvili is alleged to be a leader of the Maniac Murder Cult,... an international racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist group.  Chkhikvishvili allegedly recruited others to commit violent acts in furtherance of MKY’s ideologies, including planning and soliciting a mass casualty attack in New York City....

Beginning in approximately November 2023, Chkhikvishvili solicited [an FBI undercover agent ("UC")] ... to commit violent crimes....  Chkhikvishvili provided detailed plans and materials such as bomb-making instructions and guidance on making Molotov cocktails.... In November 2023, Chkhikvishvili began planning a mass casualty attack in New York City to take place on New Year’s Eve.  The scheme involved an individual dressing up as Santa Claus and handing out candy laced with poison to racial minorities.  The scheme also involved providing candy laced with poison to children at Jewish schools in Brooklyn.  Chkhikvishvili drafted step-by-step instructions to carry out the scheme and shared with the UC detailed manuals on creating and mixing lethal poisons and gases.  He also instructed the UC on methods of making ricin-based poisons in powder and liquid form....

Neo-Nazi Sentenced for Defacing Michigan Synagogue

 In a press release, the Department of Justice announced yesterday:

A Michigan man was sentenced today to 26 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring with other members of a white supremacist group, The Base, to victimize Black and Jewish people, and for defacing Temple Jacob, a Jewish synagogue in Hancock, Michigan, using swastikas and symbols associated with The Base....

The evidence at trial established that, in September 2019, Weeden, Tobin and Barasneh, all members of The Base, used an encrypted messaging platform to discuss vandalizing property associated with Black and Jewish Americans. Weeden and his co-conspirators dubbed their plan, "Operation Kristallnacht” — a term that means "Night of Broken Glass,” and refers to events that took place on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, when Nazis murdered Jews and burned and destroyed their homes, synagogues, schools and places of business. Weeden carried out this plan on Sept. 21, 2019, when he spray-painted swastikas and symbols associated with The Base on the outside walls of Temple Jacob....

Supreme Court: FSIA Shields Germany From Suit Over Nazi Takings of German-Jewish Property

Yesterday in Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp, (Sup. Ct., Feb. 3, 2021), the U.S Supreme Court held that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) precludes plaintiffs from filing suit in U.S. courts to recover for Jewish property taken by the Nazi government from German nationals.  Plaintiffs sued over the Nazi government's coercing a consortium of German Jewish art dealers to sell an art collection to Prussia at a one-third of its value. The FSIA provides that foreign countries, with certain exceptions, are immune from suit in U.S. courts.  Plaintiffs contended that the exception for cases  "in which rights in property taken in violation of international law are in issue" should apply because the coerced sale of their property was an act of genocide.

 A unanimous Supreme Court rejected plaintiffs' argument on two grounds. First it held that the exception for property taken in violation of international law does not include expropriation of property from a country's own nationals. Second it held that the exception for property taken in violation of international law does not apply to property taken in violation of international human rights law, saying in part: 

We need not decide whether the sale of the consortium’s property was an act of genocide, because the expropriation exception is best read as referencing the international law of expropriation rather than of human rights. We do not look to the law of genocide to determine if we have jurisdiction over the heirs’ common law property claims. We look to the law of property.

The Court yesterday also remanded Republic of Hungary v. Simon, (Sup. Ct., Feb. 3, 2021), for further consideration in light of tis decision in Germany v. Philipp. That case is a class action claim for property taken by the Hungarian government from Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust.

SCOTUSblog discusses the decisions.

Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Suits Over Nazi Confiscation of Jewish-Owned Property

The U.S. Supreme Court today heard oral arguments in two cases involving suits to recover the value of Jewish-owned property confiscated by governments in Hungary and Germany during World War II. In Republic of Hungary v. Simon (links to transcript and audio of full oral arguments), the Court was asked to decide on whether principles of international comity could be invoked by the district court to abstain from deciding the case under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. The case was brought by surviving Hungarian nationals seeking to recover on behalf of a worldwide class the value of property taken from them during the Holocaust.

In an amicus brief, the United States government argued:

The United States has a paramount interest in ensuring that its foreign partners establish appropriate domestic redress and compensation mechanisms for Holocaust victims, and therefore seeks to prevent litigation in U.S. courts that could undermine that objective.

SCOTUSblog case page has links to all the filing in the case. 

In Federal Republic of Germany v. Philipp (links to transcript and audio of full oral arguments), the Court, in addition to the comity question, is asked to decide whether the expropriation exception to sovereign immunity in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act covers the taking of property in the Holocaust in violation of human rights provisions of international law. The suit seeks recovery for the forced sale at a fraction of its actual value of a collection of medieval reliquary art that had been purchased in 1929 by a consortium of Jewish art dealers in Germany.

SCOTUSblog case page has links to all the filing in the case.

AP reports on the arguments in both cases.

Nazi Symbols On 75-Year Old POW Gravestones In VA Cemeteries Raise Protests

Yesterday, bipartisan leadership of the House Veterans Affairs and Appropriations Committees wrote the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (full text of letter) demanding removal or alterations to the gravestones of three World War II German POW's in VA cemeteries.  According to the Military Times earlier this month:

At issue are three grave sites at two VA cemeteries: Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in Texas and Fort Douglas Post Cemetery in Utah. Both were used to inter dozens of unclaimed remains of enemy troops following World War II.

While most of the foreign troops’ grave markers list only names and dates of death, the three in question are also engraved with with a swastika in the center of an iron cross and in inscription in German which reads “He died far from his home for the Führer, people and fatherland.”...

Veteran Affairs officials in a statement said the headstones date back to the 1940s. Army officials oversaw both cemeteries at the time and approved the inscriptions and inclusion of the swastika.

“The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 assigns stewardship responsibilities to federal agencies, including VA and Army, to protect historic resources, including those that recognize divisive historical figures or events,” National Cemetery Administration spokesman Les' Melnyk said in response to questions about the graves.

“For this reason, VA will continue to preserve these headstones, like every past administration has.”

Military Religious Freedom Foundation which originally called attention to the gravestones has background and further information.