French Holocaust denier appears in Scottish court

A French Holocaust denier who fled to Scotland after being convicted under anti-Nazi laws has appeared in court in Edinburgh.

Vincent Reynouard, 53, was arrested in Fife last week after a two-year search by French authorities, who are seeking his extradition.

Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990 and Reynouard has several convictions.

He was sentenced to four months in 2020 and six months in January 2021.

It is understood Reynouard is facing further prison sentences for posting anti-Semitic material online.

Reynouard was arrested by Police Scotland officers at an address in Anstruther on Thursday 10 November. He is reported to have been living in the town under a false name and working as an online tutor.

He made his second appearance at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, via video link from prison. The court was told that the former teacher had been granted legal aid and was appointing a solicitor.

His current solicitor Andrew Docherty told the sheriff his client wanted to instruct another lawyer to act in the case.

The sheriff told Reynouard he would have to remain in prison until further proceedings on 8 December, with a full hearing on the extradition request scheduled for 23 February next year.

The operation to arrest him was carried out after a Trade and Co-operation Agreement warrant was issued in France.

General Jean-Philippe Reiland of the OCLCH, the arm of the French police that specialises in hate crime and war crimes, said: "Vincent Reynouard was able to be arrested thanks to a huge effort of international co-operation and, in particular, thanks to our British counterparts.

"Despite the legal difficulties that may exist, the office will not let go of the ideologues who propagate hatred, wherever they are."

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has described Reynouard as a "despicable Holocaust denier who has repeatedly been convicted by French courts".

The charity said his first Holocaust denial conviction was in 1991 for distributing leaflets dismissing the existence of gas chambers at concentration camps.

In 1997, he was sacked from his job as a maths teacher at a secondary school in Honfleur, Normandy. His dismissal came after the discovery of revisionist texts on his computer hard disk.

He was also found giving his students statistical equations regarding the rate of mortality in Nazi concentration camps.

In 2005 Reynouard was sentenced to a year's imprisonment and fined 10,000 Euros by a court for writing a 16-page brochure entitled 'Holocaust? Here's what's kept hidden from you'.

This was sent to French tourism offices, museums and town halls.

In 2015, he was sentenced to two years in jail by a court in Normandy for denying the Holocaust in a series of Facebook posts.

His most recent conviction came in November 2020 for posting a Holocaust denial video on YouTube.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesman said: "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."