Martin Sellner (Photo: Martin Maga/WikiCommons)

Nadine Osman

An Austrian far-right extremist whose organisation is under investigation over links to Brenton Tarrant, the suspected New Zealand mosque terror attacks, has been permanently banned from entering the UK.

According to a Home Office exclusion letter published by the anti-Muslim Generation Identity (GI) group on June 26, Martin Sellner was barred from entry on counter-extremism grounds. The Home Office said GI promotes “anti-Islamic and anti-immigration narratives and directly targets Islamic communities through publicity stunts.”

Sellner has been subjected to searches by Austrian police in connection with Tarrant who is on trial for the murder in March of 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand. The 29-year-old was first linked with Tarrant after it emerged the accused had made a €1,500 donation to Sellner’s organisation. Prosecutors were looking for accounting records and evidence of further donations from Tarrant to Sellner.

The investigation has also reportedly widened to include Sellner’s US-based partner, Brittany Pettibone, and her alleged connections with Blair Cottrell, an Australian far-right figure.
Die Presse newspaper reported on June 18 that two apartments in Vienna had been searched by the prosecutor’s office in Graz.

Sellner, in two German-language YouTube videos, offered his account of the investigation. In the first, which he said was before an interview with police, Sellner said officers had removed devices from his home and that the reason was a “strong suspicion of forming a terrorist organisation with Brenton Tarrant.”

He has previously been denied entry to the UK in the company of at least one other far-right extremist as they attempted to attend a conference organised by counterparts in Britain.
Sellner and the Hungarian Ábel Bódi were planning to attend the GI conference in London in April last year but were detained at Stansted airport. It was the second time in a month that Sellner had been prevented from entering the UK.

Sellner was also the ringleader of a ‘defend Europe’ campaign last summer, responsible for targeting boats attempting to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean. Pettibone announced on her Twitter account last week that she had been notified she was under investigation. Pettibone, a prominent far-right YouTube activist, and Sellner were both refused entry to the UK when they landed at Luton airport in March last year.

The Home Secretary may exclude a European Economic Area national if they are considered to pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious national threat. The Home Office refused to confirm to “comment on individual cases.”