Hells Angels tombstone ordered out of cemetery

COPENHAGEN - A court has ordered the mother of a slain Hells Angels member to remove her son's tombstone, ruling that the inscription is sacrilegious and can scare visitors.

Louis Linde Nielsen's tombstone, which includes the international motorcycle gang's name, its winged-skull insignia and the words "the ultimate sacrifice," must be removed from the churchyard before Sept. 1, the Ekstra Bladet daily reported yesterday.

Nielsen was one of two people killed in October 1996 when an anti-tank grenade was fired into the Hells Angels headquarters compound in Copenhagen at the height of a three-year feud between the gang and the rival Bandidos.

His mother, Sonja, originally placed a neutral tombstone at his grave, but the Hells Angels replaced it two years later with one they had customized.

They put it in the cemetery without the consent of the parish in Noerup, 150 miles west of Copenhagen.

"Everybody knows that the Hells Angels is not meant as a biblical term but as a club name," gang attorney Peter Hjoerne was quoted as saying after the verdict.

Court officials confirmed the ruling but could not immediately provide more details.