The trial of seven members of the far-right Schild & Vrienden movement has been indefinitely postponed. A judge in Ghent took the decision after the lawyer of Schild & Vrienden leader Dries Van Langenhove challenged the composition of the court.
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Trial of far-right activists fails to start and is immediately postponed sine die
Colin Clapson
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Seven young men have been charged in all. All are or were members of the far-right youth movement Schild & Vrienden. The best-known defendant is Dries Van Langenhove, the leader of Schild & Vrienden and a former Belgian MP.
The investigation into Schild & Vrienden began in late 2018, after an investigation by VRT’s current affairs flagship "Pano" showed members exchanging thousands of potentially racist, sexist and Holocaust denying messages. The messages included several hundred memes or internet cartoons. According to the defendants, these were harmless jokes, but a judge launched an investigation into 65,000 of these messages.
In the event, seven members of the group were referred to court. Five others were granted a stay of judgment. This means that the court assumed that they were guilty of the offences, but that it was better not to take them to court to avoid hindering their reintegration into society.
Van Langenhove and the six others are on trial facing various charges including incitement to discrimination, segregation, hate and violence based on racism and xenophobia; spreading ideas based on racial superiority or racial hatred; justifying or approving the genocide committed during World War II, violations of anti-Holocaust denial legislation and violations of weapons legislation and in particular the sale of pepper spray (only for Van Langenhove).
These are offences for which the defendants risk up to 1 year in jail and a fine if found guilty. Only for violations of weapons legislation is punishment of up to 5 years a possibility.