BUDAPEST, Hungary, July 2 (UPI) -- A Budapest appeals court Thursday banned the neo-Nazi Hungarian Guard, a militant group of extreme far-right nationalists, court officials said.
The Hungarian Guard is the uniformed arm of the Hungarian nationalist party Jobbik, which won nearly 15 percent of the vote in the country's election for the European Parliament early in June, the Hungarian news agency MTI reported.
Guard members are known for their racial intolerance and statements described as anti-Gypsy and anti-Semitic.
The Budapest Appellate Court upheld a lower court ruling, following the guard's 2007 anti-Gypsy marches in the village of Tatarszetgyorgy, outside Budapest. The court said the guard violated the civil liberties of the Gypsies.
Early in December 2007, about 300 members of the Hungarian Guard, sporting uniforms resembling Hungarian Nazi units from World War II, marched through the village.
The Hungarian guard was formed in August 2007.
