2 UK soldiers among 3 charged with neo-Nazi group membership

LONDON – British police say three men, including two soldiers, have been charged under terrorism laws with belonging to a banned neo-Nazi group.

The West Midlands Police force says 22-year-old Alexander Deakin, 32-year-old Mikko Vehvilainen and Mark Barrett, who is 24, were charged Monday with membership in National Action and other offences.

They are among five people, four of them soldiers serving in the British Army, arrested last week. Two others were released without charges.

The government describes National Action as “virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic.” It was the first far-right group to be banned in Britain as a terrorist organization.

National Action last year praised Thomas Mair, a far-right extremist who murdered Labour Party lawmaker Jo Cox a week before Britain’s EU membership referendum.

The suspects are due in court Tuesday.