A Belgian court on Tuesday sentenced prominent far-right activist Dries Van Langenhove to a year in prison for running an organization that a trial said spread “racist, hateful, Nazi and Holocaust-denying speech,” in a primary ruling on the country’s situation. Managing extremism.
Five members of the extremist organization led by Van Langenhove received suspended sentences, in addition to two who work for the far-right Flemish Interest party, which is expected to do so in the June elections.
Tom Van Grieken, leader of the Flemish Interest party, said the resolution shows that “Belgian justice is rotten to the core” and described the process as “a political trial from day one. “
They were accused of a chat organization to exchange racist, anti-Semitic and other extremist comments. Van Langenhove, a former Belgian parliamentarian, also had some of his civil rights suspended for a decade, making him ineligible.
Investigative journalists from public broadcaster VRT were at the center of the case, as their 2018 documentary about Van Langenhove’s band Shield and Friends highlighted their audience and their militaristic and extremist activities.
“The defendant fully commends Nazi ideology, which has caused and continues to cause untold suffering to countless people. The case shows that it needs to undermine democratic society and bring it up to date with a social style of white supremacy,” said Judge Jan Van den Berghe.
Discussions about Shield and Friends included macabre jokes and memes about everything from the famine in Africa to the concentration camps of the Holocaust.
Van Langenhove, 30, had not committed any crime.
“A years-long investigation, in which the Ministry of Justice wasted millions of euros of taxpayers’ money, shows that . . . Activists can only be accused of a few memes. Memes that I didn’t even post myself,” he reacted.
Some parties to the case have filed lawsuits following the VRT documentary.
“The ridiculousness of the fuel chambers and incinerators was so exaggerated to me that I spontaneously filed a complaint,” said Henri Heimans, a former justice of the peace whose parents survived Nazi death camps. I found myself in a procedural war that lasted for years. “
Van Langenhove did not appear in court in Ghent, about 50 kilometers west of Brussels, but his lawyer said he would appeal the decision, which automatically suspends his incarceration. It also fined him 16,000 euros ($17,470).
Right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism are present in much of Europe, and far-right political parties have made wonderful strides in many European Union countries in recent years. They are expected to be a key factor in next year’s European elections. June 6-9.
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