The young man was arrested in Strassen following a police raid on a family home in early 2020.

A court in Stockholm on Thursday found the now 19- and 20-year old defendants, the younger of which resides in Luxembourg, guilty of arson following the burning of a mink farm in southern Sweden in 2019. The defendants had admitted to setting the fire, but the defence argued that it should be considered as vandalism rather than arson - an argument the court did not accept, instead finding them guilty of a lesser degree of arson.

The defendants' age played a part in their sentencing and they were given a so-called "youth rebate," which in turn lowered the penalty value they faced, resulting in a suspended sentence for both defendants. They were also ordered to pay around €13,000 between them in damages to an insurance company, while the 18-year-old was given a 'daily fine' of just under €5 for 120 days, for a total of just under €600.

The younger defendant also admitted during proceedings to having explored 'various political ideologies', and said that he had previously sympathised with Nazism. His sentence was slightly stricter than that of his co-defendant in part because he had distributed video and photo material from the fire through a leader of The Green Base, an eco-fascist group based in the US.

Background:

"Eco-fascist" domiciled in Strassen to stand trial in Sweden