Former MP Dries Van Langenhove has been sentenced to a year in jail and fined €16,000 by a court in Ghent after he was found guilty of breaches of racism and negationism laws.
The Criminal Court also found the 30-year-old founder of conservative nationalist youth movement, Schild & Vrienden, guilty of the illegal “possession of weapons” in relation to pepper spray and sentenced him to 10 months in jail which was suspended by the court.
Flemish News outlet VRT reported that Van Langenhove’s civil rights have also “been revoked” for a period of 10 years meaning he cannot run for public office.
Van Langenhove and six other members of the youth movement were tried on charges including hatred, racism, and Holocaust denial in relation to material shared among private group chats although Van Langenhove denies sending the material himself.
One of the defendants described by VRT News as Van Langenhove’s “right hand man” received an eight month suspended sentence along with an €8,000 fine, while four others received 10-month suspended sentences and were each fined €8,000.
Another defendant was given a conditional discharge of which one condition was to submit to a guided tour of the Kazerne Dossin Holocaust Museum.
Reacting to the sentence Van Langenhove posted on X saying that “millions of euros” had been “wasted” on convicting him in relation to “memes” that were shared in private group chats.
“Today I was sentenced to one year of effective prison sentence, 10 months of suspended prison sentence, €16,000 effective fine, €6,000 suspended fine, €10,000 in compensation and 10 years of loss of civil rights, which means I am no longer allowed to participate in politics.” he wrote.
He said that “a years-long investigation, on which the Justice Department wasted millions of euros of taxpayers’ money, shows that the S&V activists cannot be charged with anything other than some memes. Humor. Memes that I didn’t even post myself, by the way.” he said.
Flemish News outlet VRT reported that the messages which led to the convictions of Van Langenhove and his fellow Schild & Vrienden members had come to light after their own documentary Pano had “revealed that members of Schild & Vrienden shared racist and anti-Semitic messages in members-only chat rooms,”.
VRT reported the comments of the prosecuting judge saying that Van Langenhove “drew the other defendants into his racist, hateful, Nazi and negationist discourse that he used to pit people against each other.”
The judges comments as reported continue that Van Langenhove, “creates a hostile atmosphere in society” and that he “encourages antagonism, discord and conflict and as such fosters physical and psychological violence.”.