He cuts a putting determine, pacing across the capturing vary with a firearm at his hip. Wearing fatigues, the person with distinctive facial tattoos, is a identified determine on the Polish far-right.
One of many two males accompanying him wears a polo shirt emblazoned with the emblem of the European Safety Academy (ESA), to whose amenities these images could be geolocated.
It’s a world-leading safety coaching organisation headquartered in Wrocław, Poland, that instructs law enforcement officials, members of armed forces and even personal bodyguards from across the globe.
These pictures have been posted to a public Instagram account in Could 2020. As different social media imagery can present, beneath this man’s camouflage are a number of far-right tattoos, together with a Black Solar and the phrases “White Satan”. His companion, carrying the baseball cap, has related tattoos and wears a T-shirt bearing a picture of a Second World Warfare German soldier.
Three males on the ESA capturing ranges. Bellingcat has blurred their faces all through this text.
Intensive open supply proof means that the person with facial tattoos goes by the identify ‘Jastrząb’ and is the lead singer of a band described by British and Polish anti-extremism watchdogs as being affiliated with white nationalism.
Moreover, ‘Marek B.’, one of many males accompanying ‘Jastrząb’, posted a now-deleted photograph displaying an ESA certificates of completion from a pistol coaching course.
Bellingcat discovered quite a few examples of far-right rhetoric on each males’s social media accounts.
This isn’t the primary time ESA has come below scrutiny over the calibre of its purchasers.
In August 2018, a Bellingcat investigation revealed that ESA had been coaching plenty of people from Ukraine’s far proper. In the midst of reporting that investigation, representatives of ESA informed Bellingcat and Polish media shops that they rigorously checked all candidates’ backgrounds and wouldn’t practice people with hyperlinks to the far-right.
Though specialists informed Bellingcat that the lads featured on this investigation did nothing unlawful by attending the ESA coaching periods, these images of Jastrząb and Marek B. name ESA’s earlier assertion into query. They present that, after making these guarantees, ESA did it once more — and never with a overseas white supremacist, however with at the very least two from their very own nation, on at the very least 4 events.
This case additionally raises questions as as to whether far-right figures, together with neo-Nazis with alleged legal connections and histories of violence, have been capable of entry related coaching at ESA and different safety academies worldwide.
Neither Jastrząb nor Marek B. responded to makes an attempt to contact them for remark. ESA didn’t reply to a number of emails from Bellingcat’s reporter.
“The world’s high safety academy”
The European Safety Academy (ESA) is a navy and safety coaching supplier headquartered in Wrocław, Poland. In line with its personal web site, ESA has its roots in an organisation based in 1992 by Dr Andrzej Bryl, the Particular Coaching Centre. The Centre, which formally turned often known as the ESA in 2008, has developed a fame over time as a revered place for varied international locations’ police forces, navy items, personal bodyguards and others to obtain high-quality safety and safety coaching. It was described by the Discovery Channel in 2017 as “the world’s high safety academy.”
Bellingcat’s aforementioned 2018 investigation additionally revealed that ESA had been coaching plenty of folks with hyperlinks to Ukraine’s far proper, together with people from organisations linked to assaults on the nation’s Roma folks and LGBT+ communities. ESA’s managing director — and son of Andrzej — Bartosz Bryl informed us on the time that ESA rigorously checks all candidates and wouldn’t agree to coach folks from far-right and neo-Nazi backgrounds. Bartosz Bryl additionally said that the explanations for refusing to coach a specific candidate could differ “relying on the course content material and kind.”
“We’ll shore up our recruitment processes as a result of there’s no place for neo-Nazis right here,” ESA’s late founder Andrzej Bryl informed Polish media on the time. (Bryl handed away from most cancers in February 2020 on the age of 62).
It wasn’t the primary time ESA had earned headlines. In 2012, media in Poland reported that Bryl senior had been a part of a Polish staff that had offered elite safety coaching to the bodyguards of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, a venture that Bryl said had led to 2010. Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in 2011.
Who’s ‘Jastrząb’?
‘Jastrząb’ is a veteran of Poland’s neo-Nazi scene with well-documented associations. He’s additionally a vocalist for Legion Twierdzy Wrocław (LTW) and Omerta, bands which Poland’s Affiliation towards Antisemitism and Xenophobia describe as affiliated with worldwide neo-Nazi community Blood & Honour (B&H). Moreover, a number of LTW albums have been launched in cooperation with Sturdy Survive Information, a Polish-American label which has labored with a number of white nationalist bands.
In an article for the Polish investigative web site, Oko.Press, the journalist and professional on extremist actions Przemysław Witkowski named ‘Jastrząb’ as a member of B&H. In 2016, the UK’s Marketing campaign Towards Antisemitism was so alarmed by the band’s lyrics that it appealed to the Residence Workplace to stop LTW performing in London.
As Witkowski informed Vice News in 2018, though the band’s lyrics are straight impressed by Nazism, “they clarify all of it away as simply creative licence”. The analyst added that LTW’s vocalist bears tattoos with the phrases ‘White Satan’ and an outline of the Belgian Nazi collaborator Léon Degrelle.
Jastrząb’s tattoo of Degrelle’s face inside a Black Solar, a distinguished Nazi image, is seen on one in every of his music movies from 2016, out there on YouTube.
‘Jastrząb’ sings ‘Wotan mit uns’ in a 2016 live performance
‘Jastrząb’ additionally seems to have taken half in a number of bodybuilding contests in Poland all through 2017 and 2018. He uploaded images from these, in addition to different exercise periods, to his VK account. These pictures present a more in-depth view of his far-right tattoos, which develop extra intensive yearly.
Photograph from ‘Jastrząb’s public VK account in 2018. Word the Black Solar.
Photograph from ‘Jastrząb’’s public VK account in 2017. Word the phrases ‘White satan’ and the triskelion image, which regularly has far-right connotations.
His facial tattoos, specifically, have been helpful clues to figuring out ‘Jastrząb’ in different social media pictures.
These point out that sooner or later between Could 2020 and February 2021, ‘Jastrząb’ added an arrow-like tattoo over his proper eye that seems to be a Tyr rune, a pagan image in style with the worldwide far proper. This may be seen in an Omerta music video, wherein he was lead singer, which premiered on the band’s YouTube channel in December 2021.
‘Jastrząb’ sings in a 2020 Omerta music video. His Tyr rune tattoo can now be clearly seen.
This video might be geolocated to a nightclub close to the Polish metropolis of Wrocław which is reportedly owned by Marek B., the person who uploaded a number of pictures of ‘Jastrząb’ on the ESA capturing vary to his public Instagram account.
Bellingcat recognized a number of references within the Instagram account wherein Marek B. referred to the membership as his personal (equivalent to “come go to us!”), as beforehand alleged in Polish reporting on the town’s far-right scene.
Marek B. additionally uploaded a number of pictures of the inside of the membership, which matched completely with the background of ‘Jastrząb’s music video.
Who’s Marek B.?
Marek B. doesn’t seem to solely be a nightclub proprietor. He’s reportedly linked to a now-defunct web store that distributed far-right vogue manufacturers.
In a 2020 article for Gazeta Wyborcza on “Polish followers of Hitler”, the investigative journalist Jacek Harłukowicz named Marek B. alongside ‘Jastrząb’ as members of the town’s far-right scene, members of the Polish cell of B&H “which operates below the identify Membership 28”.
Marek B., he continued, is “a fan of militaria with certificates in revolver and rifle use”.
Marek B., tagged on the ESA’s coaching facility with an unknown lady carrying a hat promoting the exxxtreme web site. Picture from his public Instagram account.
Open supply analysis exhibits that Marek B. seems to be linked with teams on the Polish far-right which preserve connections with those that share their views throughout Europe.
Lately, native media has shed extra mild on Marek B.’s connections with such teams. In 2020, Gazeta Wyborcza revealed a collection of images of him — one in every of which allegedly confirmed him within the firm of two people linked to B&H.
Social media additionally means that Marek B. has remained energetic on the far proper scene. In 2020, the native affiliation ‘Zarzewie na rzecz tożsamości’ organised an occasion whose Polish identify interprets as “Be like a bear”. His personal chest tattoos could be seen on this video, one in every of which prominently reads ‘White Energy’.
Additional pictures from Marek B.’s Instagram account, a number of taken at an ESA coaching course, strongly point out far-right sympathies and connections.
Marek B. (centre) poses with Jastrząb (left) and a gaggle of males with far-right tattoos, a few of whom put on far-right clothes manufacturers equivalent to Ansgar Aryan.
Brothers in Arms
‘Jastrząb’s’ presence at ESA amenities was found whereas reviewing Marek B.’s Instagram account, wherein he has shared a number of pictures of himself with firearms.
It revealed that the 2 males have educated collectively at ESA capturing ranges on a number of events apart from in Could 2020.
In February 2021, Marek B. posted a photograph to Instagram with the phrases “morning espresso and into the sector”. It confirmed himself and ‘Jastrząb’, carrying fatigues, in a canteen.
‘Jastrzab’ and Marek B. on the ESA coaching facility. Word Jastrząb’s Tyr rune tattoo.
This room could be recognized because the eating corridor on the ESA’s foremost campus within the village of Włościejewki, centred on a restored Nineteenth-century palace.
The next day, Marek B. uploaded a gaggle of images displaying weapons coaching from the “area”. Marek B.’s face was seen in one in every of these images; within the picture under, Bellingcat seen the underside of a facial tattoo resembling ‘Jastrząb’s Tyr rune on the face of the person within the yellow balaclava.
The photograph above allowed us to geolocate the group of pictures to the city coaching space on the ESA campus — this may be seen by the relative place of the cream and salmon pink colored buildings and their crenellations.
Screenshot of promotional picture from ESA’s web site. Salmon and cream colored buildings with matching crenellations highlighted by Bellingcat.
The id of three of the opposite 4 males stays unknown.
In Plain Sight
Let’s return to the capturing vary in Could 2020. Within the picture under, a part of the identical set of images uploaded by ‘Jastrząb’s acquaintance to his Instagram account, the Omerta singer and bodybuilder takes a break from goal observe with Marek B.
In additional pictures, Marek B. confirmed off his far-right sympathies on the facility itself.
On this picture uploaded in Could 2020, a black solar tattoo could be seen. The German-language slogan on Marek B.’s T-Shirt reads “Demise is not any purpose to not perform an order”, displaying a Messerschmitt fighter aircraft and a German soldier.
‘Jastrząb’s’ companion additionally wears an ESA-branded baseball cap along with his far-right apparel.
Marek B.’s T-shirt exhibits the picture of a German WW2 soldier.
Marek B. holds a firearm on this Could 2020 photograph tagged to ESA’s coaching facility, whereas carrying an ESA-branded baseball cap.
The three pictures above, taken on the capturing ranges at ESA’s campus in Włościejewki, have been uploaded alongside others in Could 2020, a few of which have been captioned ‘Counter Terror’. This plausibly refers to a counter terror course supplied by ESA, although no reference to a course held that month might be discovered on the academy’s web site.
This man seems to have attended ESA coaching programs on a number of events, seemingly unaccompanied by ‘Jastrząb’. For instance, in February 2020, he uploaded a picture of himself at a capturing vary, holding a rifle and carrying a jacket and woolen cap bearing ESA’s brand.
Marek B. additionally appeared in albums of images from coaching occasions uploaded to ESA’s official Fb web page. One photograph uploaded in October 2019 confirmed him in what seems to be the identical location — showing to carry the identical mannequin of firearm and carrying the identical uniform — as within the aforementioned Instagram picture uploaded in February 2020.
He is also seen a number of occasions in ESA’s Fb photograph album entitled ‘Dynamic Pistol 2019’, uploaded in October that yr. The pictures seem to have been taken on the 40 m tactical capturing lane on the ESA campus in Włościejewki.
No pictures equivalent to the Dynamic Pistol course might be present in Marek B.’s Instagram account. Nevertheless, Marek B. finally offered conclusive affirmation of his attendance at this course — a photograph of his certificates of completion posted to his (now-deleted) private Fb account.
The doc was signed by the late Dr. Andrzej Bryl, the ESA founder who had informed Polish media only a yr earlier that his organisation wouldn’t practice far-right extremists.
A photograph, since deleted, posted by Marek B. on Fb displaying his participation in an ESA pistol coaching course in 2019. Bellingcat has obscured his surname, aside from the primary letter, and his center identify.
It’s not identified whether or not that is the “certificates in revolver use” to which Harłukowicz, the Gazeta Wyborcza journalist, referred in his 2020 article.
To Vet or To not Vet?
It have to be burdened that, based on interviews with Polish specialists interviewed by Bellingcat, an individual who holds far-right views would have accomplished nothing unlawful by attending ESA coaching programs.
However, their attendance seems to undermine a precept set out by the organisation’s founder. What turned of the late Andrzej Bryl’s 2018 promise that ESA wouldn’t practice far-right extremists? Specialists interviewed by Bellingcat said that Poland’s coaching amenities are neither obliged to vet candidates’ backgrounds nor bar them from their programs.
“There are not any procedures for verifying a buyer as regards to legal or extremist [behaviour],” remarked the Gdańsk-based capturing teacher Jerzy Obrycki. “Additionally it is troublesome to refuse anyone use of a service which is authorized based on Polish legislation. The one buyer who could be requested to go away a coaching course is one whose behaviour is harmful to himself or to others”, Obrycki defined.
Equally, the lawyer Tomasz Plaszczyk informed Bellingcat that there isn’t a regulation nor authorities physique which permits for preventative vetting of candidates for weapons coaching programs. “If such firms are owned or make use of former police officers, then they need to depend on their very own expertise”, concluded Plaszczyk, who’s a former main within the ABW, Poland’s home safety company.
Our reporter reached out to Marek B. by way of his Instagram account and tried to contact ‘Jastrząb’ by way of the social media pages of Omerta and LTW, although neither responded to our request for remark.
The ABW didn’t substantively reply to Bellingcat’s questions, as an alternative providing a brief abstract of its remit. The ESA didn’t reply to a number of emails from Bellingcat.
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