Alain Soral dismissed by the European Court of Human Rights, which he had seized after his conviction for Holocaust denial

The French right-wing extremist and Swiss-French citizen convicted of Holocaust denial, Alain Soral, has failed in an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The Strasbourg Chamber finally decided on Thursday that Soral’s criminal conviction in France for public insult and denial of a crime against humanity is compatible with the fundamental right to freedom of expression. The judges also dismissed Soral’s complaint that he did not receive a fair trial as manifestly without merit.

The 63-year-old Soral, at times a member of the predecessor party of the right-wing populist Rassemblement National, was sentenced by French courts in two instances for an antisemitic cartoon mocking the victims of the Shoah. In January 2018, an appeals court in Paris imposed a penalty of 100 daily rates of 100 euros each. The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict in March 2019.

The European Court of Human Rights pointed out that the French courts had already weighed the right to freedom of expression and the protection of the rights of others. The message of the cartoon cannot be considered as a contribution to any debate of public interest. Even if the relevant article of the European Convention on Human Rights were applicable, in this case an interference with freedom of expression in a democratic society would be necessary.