Charisa Bossinakis
The New Zealand government has designated the alt-right organisation The Proud Boys a terrorist group.
RNZ reports that the US group was listed in the government’s Gazette on June 20 but was only made public a week later, with no further information.
With the organisation designated as a terrorist group, it means any organisation or individual with ties to them will face prosecution under the Terrorism Suppression Act.
RNZ says the move was authorised by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster and signed off by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who outlined that anyone affiliated with the terrorist group would be charged under criminal law.
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Coster said: "Those groups are respectively neo-Nazi, neo-fascist, white supremacist groups who have been responsible for some key unlawful events overseas, and so police supported the designation.”
He added: "It's ultimately a matter for each jurisdiction to decide, but I would note that these groups have been designated in Australia and obviously they're one of our closest partners in assessing the terrorism threat."
The fascist organisation is most well-known for having members storm the Capitol on January 6 last year to block the democratic process of certifying Joe Biden’s election victory.
According to the US Justice Department, more than 800 Trump supporters have been arrested in connection with storming the Capitol, but very few will face legal punishment.
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However, several members of The Proud Boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy, including former Proud Boys chairman Henry ‘Enrique’ Tarrio, Dominic Pezzola, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, and Zachary Reh, for their attacks against Congress, according to France 24.
The Capitol riot hearings has helped expose the violence incited by rioters, as per ABC News.
One testimony given by Capitol police officer Caroline Edwards revealed she was among those harmed by the white-nationalist group.
Edwards sustained a brain injury after a member climbed over a barrier.
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She said before the court: "I was slipping in people's blood.
"Never in my wildest dream did I think as a police officer, as a law enforcement officer, that I would find myself in the middle of a battle."
She continued: "I'm not combat trained. That day, it was just hours of hand-to-hand combat, hours of dealing with things that were way beyond anything any law enforcement officer is ever trained for."