A French Holocaust denier and neo-Nazi was sentenced to twelve months in prison by the Paris Criminal Court on Wednesday.
Vincent Reynouard was found guilty of denying war crimes, denying crimes against humanity, and inciting racial hatred, Le Monde reported, facing trial for comments made on online videos between 2017 and 2020.
In addition to his year-long sentence, Reynouard will have to pay 10,000 Euros in damages to the Jewish Observatory of France (OJDF) and the International League against Racism and Antisemitism (LICRA).
According to Le Figaro, he attended the trial in cycling gear and was accompanied by dozens of supporters.
One of these comments, posted on YouTube in May 2017 in a video titled "Macron, servant of the Jews?" disputed the reality of the Holocaust, describing it as a "false story," as well as the role of the Waffen-SS in committing the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre.
Oradour-sur-Glane is a town in southwest-central France, where 643 residents were murdered by an SS division who were retreating from the Allied advances on June 10, 1944.
In other videos, posted between September 2019 and March 2020, Reynouard argued that the French Resistance committed this massacre, not the Nazis, Le Monde reported.
Activists, including LICRA, contacted France's interior ministry regarding Holocaust denial remarks written by Reynouard in his 2022 book titled "Oradour, the Cry of the Victims," FranceTVInfo reported.
Reactions to the sentencing
The president of the Jewish Observatory of France (OJDF) wrote that we "express our deep gratitude to the entire legal team," whose hard work led to the conviction.
They also praised the "commitment of the magistrates" for reminding "us that the denial of crimes against humanity is unacceptable in our society."
However, the OJDF president "deplored" that the "penalties imposed" are not heavy enough to be a successful deterrent.
"The Jewish Observatory of France reaffirms its determination to fight hatred and revisionism. Our vigilance remains intact, and we will tirelessly pursue this essential fight," OJDF concluded.
LICRA reported the ruling on their X/Twitter, adding that one of their legal representatives, Galina Elbaz, participated in the case.
⚖️ Vincent Reynouard a été condamné dans deux dossiers par le tribunal correctionnel de Paris pour contestation de crime contre l’humanité, contestation de crime de guerre et provocation à la discrimination, à la haine et à la violence à caractère antisémite.➡️ Pour avoir nié… pic.twitter.com/S624DqW2zz
— Licra (@_LICRA_) March 19, 2025
Vincent Reynouard's history of far Right views
Holocaust denial has been a crime in France since 1990, BBC reported.
A former math teacher, Reynouard has been disseminating far Right theories since the 1990s.
Reynouard suggested that corpses found at death camps were not genocide victims, but hundreds of "cripples" who had not survived their transport to the camps, according to BBC.
In one of the videos online, he commented that Adolf Hitler is the "most slandered man," and Reynouard wanted to "rehabilitate" National Socialism, BBC added.
In October 1992, he received his first conviction for contesting crimes against humanity.
In 1997, he contributed to a book claiming to exonerate the Waffen SS of the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre; reiterating this in 2001 in a video that was subsequently banned, FranceTVInfo reported.
In June 2004, the Limoges Court of Appeal sentenced him to 24 months in prison, six of which were suspended, for his condoning of war crimes, FranceTVInfo reported.
This was overturned by the Court of Cassation in April 2005, FranceTVInfo added, stating that the higher court ruled that the alleged acts "did not constitute condoning war crimes, but merely challenging war crimes, which was not punishable by law."
In an attempt to flee the French justice system, he fled to the UK in 2015.
BBC added that Reynouard was sentenced to four months imprisonment in 2020, and six months in January 2021.
However, he was spotted by French gendarmes, and London's Metropolitan Police's counter-terror operatives hiding in Scotland in November 2022, finally being arrested in Scotland's Anstruther, near Fife, before losing an extradition case in January 2024 and his extradition to France in February 2024, BBC reported.
Lord Carloway, who oversaw his extradition trial, described some of Reynouard's other statements made about the Jewish community as "antisemitic racism," BBC reported.
Lord Carloway added that one does not need to be Jewish to be "grossly offended by such statements," BBC added. He found seven videos featured Reynouard's comments which amounted to an offence.