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Success for CAA as Holocaust-denier Vincent Reynouard loses extradition appeal

Vincent Reynouard, a French Holocaust-denier, will be extradited from the UK after his application for leave to appeal was rejected on Friday.

Mr Reynouard, 54, a convicted Holocaust-denier, was awaiting a decision from the court on the appeal after a court in Scotland granted an extradition request from France. Mr Reynouard was a fugitive in the UK who was caught following appeals from Campaign Against Antisemitism.

His extradition hearing followed several preliminary hearings and false starts to allow time for the content of videos, which were alleged to have been made by Mr Reynouard, to be translated into English, as well as other delays due to ill health on his legal team.

Mr Reynouard continued to post updates on his far-right blog, Sans Concession, despite being incarcerated as he awaited his extradition hearing.

The extradition request was granted after the court considered that the postings for which Mr Reynouard was found guilty in France would also be crimes in the UK under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

In a different case in 2018, Campaign Against Antisemitism secured a legal precedent that Holocaust-denial is “grossly offensive” and therefore illegal when used as a means by which to hound Jews. When it is delivered via a medium of communication, it can fall within the purview of the Communications Act. That English precedent has effectively been replicated in Scottish law in this case now as well.

Mr Reynouard was sentenced  to jail for four months on 25th November 2020 by a court in Paris and again in January 2021 for six months, in addition to fines. His latest conviction is in relation to a series of antisemitic postings on Facebook and Twitter and a 2018 YouTube video for which fellow French Holocaust denier, Hervé Ryssen (also known as Hervé Lalin), received a seventeen-month-jail term earlier that year.

However, Mr Reynouard fled the country before serving his sentence and settled in the UK, where he reportedly worked as a private tutor teaching children mathematics, physics and chemistry. Private tutors are not required to undergo background checks.

In November 2022, he was finally arrested near Edinburgh. In the intervening months, Campaign Against Antisemitism has been cooperating with French Jewish groups seeking Mr Reynouard’s extradition to France. Along with Lord Austin, an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, we corresponded with police forces and prosecutors in the UK and Interpol in an effort to locate Mr Reynouard and bring him to justice.

Scottish police arrested him at an address near the Scottish capital, where he was apparently living under a false identity. He was brought before a judge on the same day and refused to consent to his extradition to France.

Early last year, Mr Reynouard appeared in court where he was served with a second arrest warrant, as the French authorities had allegedly made an error in their application for the initial arrest warrant. Paul Dunne, Mr Reynouard’s lawyer, said of Mr Reynouard: “He does not consent to his extradition to France.”

Mr Reynouard faces a sentence of almost two years in a French prison, in addition to any further sentence in relation to other ongoing proceedings. It is possible that his time in prison in the UK may reduce the length of his custodial sentence in France.

The Office Central de Lutte Contre les Crimes Contre l’Humanité, les Génocides et les Crimes de Guerre (OCLCH) — the arm of the French gendarmerie that specialises in hate crime and war crimes — has been leading the investigation.

Mr Reynouard’s first Holocaust denial conviction was in 1991 for distributing leaflets denying the existence of the gas chambers at concentration camps. Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990. He has been convicted on numerous occasions and his subsequent sentences include multiple prison terms and a €10,000 fine.

Mr Reynouard is alleged to have ties to Catholic fundamentalist groups that deny the Holocaust. In a recent analysis of the French far-right, the newspaper Liberation claimed that Mr Reynouard and Mr Ryssen are key members of a network of propagandists dedicated to the denial and distortion of the Holocaust.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Vincent Reynouard is a despicable Holocaust-denier who has repeatedly been convicted by French courts. For him to have evaded justice, only to settle in the UK as a private tutor teaching children, is intolerable, which is why we worked with French Jewish organisations to secure his extradition so that he faces the consequences of his abhorrent incitement.

“We are delighted that those efforts have borne fruit, with the court granting the request to extradite Mr Reynouard, and refusing his application for permission to appeal, so that he can face justice in France. This is not only the right judgement for the Jewish community, but also for the justice system. The UK cannot become a haven for those seeking to evade justice elsewhere. For antisemites in particular, the message is clear: you are not welcome in Britain. Good riddance, Mr Reynouard.”

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How do we remember the Holocaust?

This week we approach Holocaust Memorial Day, which marks the Allied liberation of Auschwitz and commemorates the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators. But how should we remember the Holocaust – the event for which the term “genocide” was coined?

From graffiti in Glasgow to a library in Tower Hamlets, we are all seeing comparisons of Israel to Nazis everywhere, in a clear breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism. At yesterday’s weekly anti-Israel protest, leaflets were distributed in London purporting to explain the “Zionist Holocaust, backed by the West, aping Hitler.” Across the channel in the Hague, the Jewish state is being accused of implementing a genocide.

The brutality of the antisemitic genocidal terror group Hamas has quickly been forgotten, and reminders of its barbarism – such as pictures of baby Kfir, who this past week turned one year old in Hamas’s clutches – are torn from walls.

Evidently, the enemies of the Jewish people view the Holocaust and its legacy very differently from the rest of us. This week will be an opportunity to ask ourselves why we continue to remember the Holocaust, and what lessons it is supposed to teach.

If you are organising or attending a Holocaust Memorial Day event, make sure that the right lessons are being taught. If they are not, please let us know.

Manchester marches against antisemitism

Weekly anti-Israel rallies featuring antisemitic rhetoric and genocidal chanting have made our urban centres no-go zones for Jews. It is intolerable.

Today, Campaign Against Antisemitism was proud to join Jews and allies in Manchester to march against antisemitism!

“Filthy animals and Zionist control”

Our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit, together with our communications team, went out to a recent anti-Israel rally and asked protesters why they were demonstrating.

​Their repugnant responses were so voluminous that we couldn’t fit them all into one video. Here is Part One:

You can also watch Part Two and Part Three.

Are the police doing enough?

Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, appeared on LBC to defend policing of the weekly anti-Israel protests. Challenged by a caller, he claimed: “We’re determined to do everything we can do within the law to create the frameworks around protest to make sure that we balance the rights of protesters with not having the centre of London as a place where people such as yourself are afraid to come into.”

Given that our polling shows that 90% of British Jews say that they would avoid travelling to a city centre if a major anti-Israel demonstration was taking place there, we question Sir Mark’s satisfaction that the right “balance” has been struck.

Pressed on whether his officers are being robust enough with demonstrators who hold antisemitic signs and presented with the claim that, when protestors shout the genocidal chant “From the River to the Sea”, his officers just stand and watch, he insisted: “That’s not true.”

​You can judge for yourself here.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has been at the forefront of holding the Met to account, and we will continue to do so in the weeks to come.

Proscription of Hizb ut-Tahrir

While the Met Police may not be listening, the Government showed that it is. This week, Home Secretary James Cleverly announced that the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir is to be proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000.

When we discovered that Hizb ut-Tahrir had appeared to praise the Hamas attack of 7th October, we wrote to the Met to prevent the group from holding its demonstrations on the streets of London. The Met took no action and the rallies went ahead, in which there were calls for the armies of Muhammed to wage Jihad. Still, the Met refused to take action, making excuses to defend this rhetoric instead.

We therefore wrote to the Home Secretary calling for the controversial Islamist group to be proscribed.

​We commend the Home Secretary for this significant announcement. for which we have called over the past few weeks and with which, according to our polling, 90% of British Jews agree.

It is absolutely the right step, and shows that the Government is listening. The Met should take note.

This week, as we approach Holocaust Memorial Day, we must ensure that the right lessons are being learned. We owe it to the past, and we owe it to the present and the future.

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Success for CAA as Scottish court grants extradition for Holocaust-denier Vincent Reynouard

A court in Scotland has granted an extradition request for the convicted Holocaust-denier Vincent Reynouard, a French fugitive in the UK who was caught following appeals from Campaign Against Antisemitism.

Mr Reynouard, 54, appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today for his extradition hearing, which followed several preliminary hearings and false starts over the past year, to allow time for the content of videos, alleged to have been made by Mr Reynouard, to be translated into English, as well as other delays due to ill health on his legal team.

Mr Reynouard continued to post updates on his far-right blog, Sans Concession, despite being incarcerated as he awaited his extradition hearing.

Today, the extradition request has been granted, as the court considered that the postings for which Mr Reynouard was found guilty in France would also be crimes in the UK under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

In a different case in 2018, Campaign Against Antisemitism secured a legal precedent that Holocaust-denial is “grossly offensive” and therefore illegal when used as a means by which to hound Jews. When it is delivered via a medium of communication, it can fall within the purview of the Communications Act. That English precedent has now been replicated in Scottish law today as well.

He will be extradited within ten days of the seven-day period in which he can appeal.

Mr Reynouard was sentenced to jail for four months on 25th November 2020 by a court in Paris and again in January 2021 for six months, in addition to fines. His latest conviction is in relation to a series of antisemitic postings on Facebook and Twitter and a 2018 YouTube video for which fellow French Holocaust denier, Hervé Ryssen (also known as Hervé Lalin), received a seventeen-month-jail term earlier that year.

However, Mr Reynouard fled the country before serving his sentence and settled in the UK, where he reportedly worked as a private tutor teaching children mathematics, physics and chemistry. Private tutors are not required to undergo background checks.

In November last year, he was finally arrested near Edinburgh. In the intervening months, Campaign Against Antisemitism has been cooperating with French Jewish groups seeking Mr Reynouard’s extradition to France. Along with Lord Austin, an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, we have corresponded with police forces and prosecutors in the UK and Interpol in an effort to locate Mr Reynouard and bring him to justice.

Scottish police arrested him at an address near the Scottish capital, where he was apparently living under a false identity. He was brought before a judge on the same day and refused extradition to France.

Earlier this year, Mr Reynouard appeared in court where he was served with a second arrest warrant, as the French authorities had allegedly made an error in their application for the initial arrest warrant. Paul Dunne, Mr Reynouard’s lawyer, said of Mr Reynouard: “He does not consent to his extradition to France.”

Mr Reynouard faces a sentence of almost two years in a French prison, in addition to any further sentence in relation to other ongoing proceedings.

The Office Central de Lutte Contre les Crimes Contre l’Humanité, les Génocides et les Crimes de Guerre (OCLCH) — the arm of the French gendarmerie that specialises in hate crime and war crimes — has been leading the investigation.

Mr Reynouard’s first Holocaust denial conviction was in 1991 for distributing leaflets denying the existence of the gas chambers at concentration camps. Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990. He has been convicted on numerous occasions and his subsequent sentences include multiple prison terms and a €10,000 fine.

Mr Reynouard is alleged to have ties to Catholic fundamentalist groups that deny the Holocaust. In a recent analysis of the French far-right, the newspaper Liberation claimed that Mr Reynouard and Mr Ryssen are key members of a network of propagandists dedicated to the denial and distortion of the Holocaust.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Vincent Reynouard is a despicable Holocaust-denier who has repeatedly been convicted by French courts. For him to have evaded justice, only to settle in the UK as a private tutor teaching children, is intolerable, which is why we worked with French Jewish organisations to secure his extradition so that he faces the consequences of his abhorrent incitement.

“We are delighted that those efforts have borne fruit today, with the court granting the request to extradite Mr Reynouard so that he can face justice in France. This is not only the right judgement for the Jewish community, but also for the justice system. The UK cannot become a haven for those seeking to evade justice elsewhere. For antisemites in particular, the message is clear: you are not welcome in Britain. Good riddance, Mr Reynouard.”

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Iranian President questions Holocaust, calling for it to be “investigated by researchers”

The President of Iran has appeared to question the veracity of the Holocaust and delegitimise the existence of the state of Israel.

In a CBS “60 minutes” interview, Ebrahim Raisi was asked by host Lesley Stahl whether he believed that six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. He replied: “Historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched.”

Asked about Israel’s right to exist, Mr Raisi said: “You see, the people of Palestine are the reality. This is the right of the people of Palestine who were forced to leave their houses and motherland. The Americans are supporting this false regime there to take root and to be established there.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, denying the Holocaust and “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” are both examples of antisemitism.

Mr Raisi also condemned any Arab states that recognise Israel by establishing diplomatic relations, commenting: “If a state shakes hands with the Zionist regime, then they are also an accomplice to their crimes.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran has a long history of antisemitism. Just last month, for example, the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that “The western powers are a mafia. The reality of this power is a mafia. At the top of this mafia stand the prominent Zionist merchants, and the politicians obey them. The US is their showcase, and they’re spread out everywhere.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism reports on news and incidents relating to antisemitism worldwide.

We are seeking to recruit a General Counsel a Video and Content Creator to join our London office

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Campaign Against Antisemitism is a volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law. Everything that we do is done by people who volunteer their time, using donations contributed by members of the public. Join the fight against antisemitism by subscribing to our updates, volunteering, or donating.