Alison Chabloz fails to overturn conviction over Holocaust denial at High Court, leaving no further avenue of appeal
Moments ago, notorious antisemite and Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz has had her application for a judicial review denied by the High Court following her landmark conviction on three charges of sending grossly offensive communications via a public communications network.
Ms Chabloz had sought to overturn her conviction on technicalities relating to the meaning of what constituted sending communications online, but the High Court denied her appeal and upheld the earlier judgment. There was confusion over the way that the case had proceeded to court as Ms Chabloz’s case was brought before judges by her barrister, Adrian Davies, who maintains his record of losing cases for neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.
Ms Chabloz had sought to overturn her conviction on technicalities relating to the case began as a private prosecution by Campaign Against Antisemitism, which was then continued by the Crown Prosecution Service. The charges related to three self-penned songs in which Ms Chabloz denounced a supposed Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world and attacked the Holocaust as a fraud perpetrated by Jews for financial gain.
The conviction set a new precedent in British law, effectively delivering a landmark precedent verdict on incitement on social media and on whether the law considers Holocaust denial to be “grossly offensive” and therefore illegal when used as a means by which to hound Jews.
Ms Chabloz was sentenced to a twenty-week prison sentence suspended for two years, 180 hours of unpaid community service, an indefinite order against contacting two leaders of Campaign Against Antisemitism, as well as an order banning her from social media for twelve months. She was also ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge, and costs of £600.
Earlier this year, the conviction and sentence were upheld at Southwark Crown Court, where Judge Christopher Hehir, sitting with lay magistrate Ms M Rego, said of Ms Chabloz, “She is a Holocaust denier…she is manifestly antisemitic and obsessed with the wrongdoing of Jews,” adding that, on the subject of the Holocaust, “she has lost all sense of perspective.”
Meanwhile, following extensive contact between lawyers for Campaign Against Antisemitism, the National Probation Service and the Crown Prosecution Service, on 23rd September District Judge Jonathan Taaffe found Ms Chabloz guilty of breaching the conditions of her suspended sentence after blog posts that she published since June 2018 were found to constitute a breach of the social media ban. Ms Chabloz is appealing this decision.
Ms Chabloz has also been banned from entering France, where Holocaust denial is illegal, for forty years until 2059.
Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “We are delighted with today’s decision, which is the culmination of a private prosecution undertaken by Campaign Against Antisemitism and continued by the Crown Prosecution Service. Today’s decision confirms the court’s landmark judgment that the law considers Holocaust denial to be ‘grossly offensive’ and therefore illegal when used as a means by which to hound Jews. This is a major step forward in the fight against anti-Jewish racism and paves the way for Ms Chabloz to be returned to prison if she loses her appeal for breach of sentence next year.”
