Austria's Interior Ministry on Tuesday said that it had extended a list of symbols banned in public by adding a number of symbols representing extremist and far-right groups, including who which are related to the World War II Croatian fascist Ustasha regime.

The list of the banned insignia, published on the ministry’s website, included 13 flags and symbols which mostly relate to extremist and jihadist groups, while two of the symbols relate to the Ustasha regime.

The list of the banned symbols includes the insignia of The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Kurdish far-left organisation, PKK, and the Turkish far-right ultranationalist organisation, Grey Wolves.

The maximum fine for using the proscribed insignia is €4,000, and those who repeat the offence can be fined up to €10,000.

The initiative to ban the two Ustasha symbols was launched by the regional authorities in Carinthia, in response to the annual Bleiburg remembrance ceremony which is held every May near that Austrian town on the border with Slovenia. It is held in memory of civilians and soldiers loyal to the defeated World War II Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and the Ustasha regime which controlled it, who were captured and killed by the communist Partisans in the closing stages of the war.

Over the years since the early 1990s, the memorial event, which traditionally includes an open air Catholic mass attended by thousands of Croatians, also became popular with far-right extremists who often publicly displayed Ustasha-related insignia and slogans at the event.

In April last year, three MEP’s from Austria raised this issue in a joint news conference in Vienna, which led to Austrian police stepping up security measures at the event, resulting in six arrests.

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