A person who denies the occurrence of the Holocaust, and was apprehended in a fishing village in Scotland, will now be sent back to France after evading authorities for two years.
Reports state that Vincent Reynouard was arrested in November 2022 and later lost his fight against extradition. It was revealed that he had been leading a double life in Anstruther, Fife, where he was employed as a private tutor.
According to PA Media, Reynouard, who is 54 years old, was put in custody as French officials initiated an attempt to extradite him. The basis for this action is videos where he is said to have denied the presence of gas chambers in concentration camps.
A French court has issued a domestic warrant related to seven videos created between September 2019 and April 2020. Among the videos, one reportedly contains statements denying Nazi atrocities and another discusses “the Jewish problem”.
The stated charges consist of “publicly downplaying a war crime” and “publicly disputing the occurrence of crimes against humanity during World War II”.
France has deemed Holocaust denial as illegal since 1990, and Reynouard has faced convictions in the past, resulting in prison sentences in November 2020 and January 2021.
In October of last year, at a court hearing in Edinburgh, Sheriff Christopher Dickson declared that the YouTube videos were unacceptable in our society and violated the Communications Act. As a result, he approved the extradition.
Reynouard contested the extradition, but his request for permission to appeal was denied. In a written ruling by Lord Carloway at the appeals court, released on Friday, it was determined that the extradition was not excessive and that the videos would be considered offensive by any rational individual.
He stated that the severity of the criminal act of sharing offensive videos online was evaluated based on Scottish standards and considered to be relatively serious.
According to the ruling, the videos were considered to be at their most extreme, as they contained racist statements denying the occurrence of the Holocaust and other war crimes.
It stated: “The impact of ‘false information’ on the internet and social media is widely recognized and has harmful consequences.”
The report was contributed to by PA Media.
Source: theguardian.com
