Klas Lund | |
|---|---|
| Born | Klas Henrik Pontus Lund (1968-02-14)14 February 1968 (age 57) |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Known for | Founder of theWhite Aryan Resistance,Nordic Resistance Movement andNordic Strength |
Klas Henrik Pontus Lund (born 14 February 1968) is a SwedishNational-Socialist and since 2019 the leader of the combat organisationNordic Strength.[1]
Lund was previously a founder ofWhite Aryan Resistance (VAM) in 1990, and leader of the Swedish Resistance Movement (SMR) from 1997, now part of the wider movement known as theNordic Resistance Movement (NMR).
Lund was sentenced to four years in prison for the manslaughter of Ronny Landin in 1986, who had intervened in an attack against three immigrants inNynäshamn. He was released after two years in prison.[2]
In 1990, Lund and two others founded the White Aryan Resistance, an underground racist group that became a centre for some of Sweden's most militant far-right extremists.[2] He also ran a skinhead office atFryshuset which functioned as a recruiting base for VAM.[3]
In 1991 he was sentenced to six years in prison for a bank robbery inVemdalen,[2] in which members of VAM used weapons from a heist against a police station in Lidingö. He has also been convicted for abuse and several times for illegal possession of weapons.[4] He founded the Swedish Resistance Movement and became its first leader in 1997. He was the leader of the group until 2015.[5]
In October 2004 he escaped from the prison in Mariestad, where he served six months for illegal possession of weapons.[2] He was not apprehended until March 2005, inKristiansand, Norway.[6]
In August 2019 several of the leading members of NMR broke out and established the paramilitary organisation Nordic Strength, with Lund as the leader. The reason was that they considered the NMR's political strategy not sufficiently radical. The breakaway group describes itself as an elite combat organisation with tough physical requirements on its members.[7][8]