A panel of judges has ordered that Dries Van Langenhove stand trial on charges of Holocaust denial. The former far right lawmaker already has to stand trial for inciting hate and violence as well as weapons offences.
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Ex far right lawmaker to face Holocaust denial charges
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At issue are a number of words about the Holocaust on the internal communication channel of the far-right youth movement Schild & Vrienden, which he set up.
Some of the utterances were aired on a report by VRT’s Pano programme in 2018. A judicial investigation earlier revealed that these utterances were not made by Van Langenhove personally but modifying an earlier decision the panel of judges has now ruled that there are sufficient reasons to charge Van Langenhove with Holocaust denial.
A lawyer for the civil parties argued that sufficient evidence existed to prove the activist was jointly responsible because he set up the chat groups and provided support from the side lines, even if he didn’t post anything himself.
The charge of Holocaust denial, the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a fabrication, myth or exaggeration, is rare says Jos Vander Velpen of the Human Rights League: “This is no every day occurrence. Really, it’s quite exceptional. Fortunately, because questioning the existence of the Holocaust is no small beer”.
Dries Van Langenhove came to prominence following the Pano report that investigated his Schild & Vrienden movement. In 2019 he stood as an independent at the top of the Vlaams Belang list of candidates for the federal parliament in Flemish Brabant, though he never became a member of the far-right party.