A teenager in England was sentenced to more than four years for posting, among other violent content, an image calling Prince Harry a “race traitor” who should be shot.
Michal Szewczuk, 19, was arrested last year for the violent and racist posts. In them, Szewczuk hailed Anders Breivik, the man who killed 77 people in Norway, as a hero and said that white women who date outside their race should be killed. In 2018, Prince Harry married American Meghan Markle, who is half black.
Szewczuk pleaded guilty to two counts of encouraging terrorism and five counts of possession of terrorist material.
He was sentenced alongside 18-year-old Oskar Dunn-Koczorowski, who pleaded to two counts of encouraging terrorism. The two never knew each other in real life but had communicated through online chatrooms. They were arrested last year when they posted the links and images to the social media site Gab.
Szewczuk also had a blog that argued that the rape of women and children was justifiable in pursuit of the Aryan race.
Prior to sentencing, the two teenagers were being held at a high-security prison that has housed the likes of Islamic terrorists and mass murderers.
At the sentencing, Judge Rebecca Poulet said the two were inspired by neo-Nazism.
“The posts I have seen and read are abhorrent as well as criminal by reason of their clear intention to encourage terrorist acts,” Poulet said. “Individuals were urged to go out and commit appalling acts of violence on others for no reason that can ever be understood by any right-thinking individuals.”
The prosecutor in the case, Naomi Parsons, argued that the two were going to act despite not having any proof of a terror plot.
“This isn’t a keyboard organization. It is intent on action,” Parsons said.
The United Kingdom has different free speech standards than the U.S. For example, possession of literature like the White Resistance Manuel and al Qaeda training manuals are criminalized. Szewczuk was charged for possessing both of those documents.
