In a landmark ruling on how the country deals with extremism, a Belgian court on Tuesday said that a prominent far-right activist was accused of what the judge called “racist, hateful, Nazi and negationist speech.” Dries van Langenhove was sentenced to one year in prison.
Five members of van Langenhove’s extremist group were given suspended sentences, including two members of the far-right Flemish Interest Party, which is poised to make a big jump in June’s elections. Ta.
Tom van Grieken, leader of the Flemish Interest Party, said the verdict was proof that “Belgian justice is rotten to the core” and called the case “a political trial from day one”.
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The six people were accused of using chat groups to exchange racist, anti-Semitic and other extremist comments. Ghent University and human rights groups were among the civil society organizations that sought and received compensation.
Dries van Langenhove attends a lecture by Dutch politician Bode, founder and chairman of the Dutch far-right party Democracy Forum, at Ghent University on October 26, 2023. A Belgian court sentenced Van Langenhove to one year in prison for racist hate speech. (James Arthur Gekiere/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images)
When a 2018 documentary about Van Langenhove’s “Shield and Friends” group highlighted its public and private militaristic and extremist activities, an investigative journalist from public broadcaster VRT identified a central figure in the case. It became.
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Judge Jan van den Berghe said: “The defendant extolled Nazi ideology, which has caused and continues to cause untold suffering to countless people. “It showed that they wanted to transform it into a social model of white supremacy and replace it with a social model of white supremacy.”
Van Langenhove was not present in court in Ghent, about 30 miles west of Brussels, but his lawyer said he intended to appeal against the automatic suspension of his sentence. He was also fined $17,470.
Right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism are on the rise in many parts of Europe, and far-right parties have made significant inroads in many European Union countries in recent years. These are expected to be important issues in the June 6-9 EU elections.
