LONDON, England (AP) -- The founder of the anti-immigrant British National Party was found dead Tuesday, Sussex police said, two days before he was due in court for allegedly stirring up racial hatred. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.
John Tyndall, 72, was to appear at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday on two counts of using words or behavior intended or likely to stir up racial hatred. He was found dead at his flat in Hove, south of London.
Tyndall was charged with BNP leader Nick Griffin, 45, after a long-running investigation into the BBC documentary "A Secret Agent," which secretly filmed party activists.
Tyndall was charged in connection with a speech he made in March 2004 in the northern city of Burnley, the site of race riots in 2001 that were blamed on the BNP. Inciting racial hatred is punishable by up to two years in prison.
The party has been accused of promoting riots between whites and South Asian immigrants in Burnley and several other towns in a poor area of northern England in 2001.
Tyndall, a former chairman of the National Front, founded the BNP in 1982. He lost a leadership election to Griffin in 1999, and was subsequently evicted from the BNP for criticizing the new leadership, party spokesman Phil Edwards said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/e...britain.bnp.ap/
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