Holocaust denier on run does not want to be extradited

Holocaust denier on the run from French authorities tells court he does not want to be sent back across the Channel

• Vincent Reynouard, 53, was arrested in Anstruther, Fife, last month 
• He had been on the run after making a series of anti-Semitic posts online
• Vincent is a Holocaust denier who has committed several previous offences 
• Preliminary hearing in extradition case at Edinburgh Sherriff Court today
• Lawyer told the court that Reynouard does not want to be extradited to France 

A French Holocaust denier who has been on the run from authorities has told a court he does not want to be extradited across the Channel.

Vincent Reynouard, 53, was arrested in Anstruther, Fife last month on a Trade and Co-operation Agreement warrant issued in France. 

The 53-year-old was convicted in France under anti-Nazi laws, where he was handed a four-month jail term in November 2020 and a further six months in January 2021 over a series of anti-Semitic posts on social media.  

Today, a preliminary hearing in his extradition case, which he was excused from attending, took place at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. His lawyer, who did not wish to be named, told the court that Reynouard does not consent to being sent back across the Channel.   

Vincent Reynouard, 53, pictured in one of his social media videos, was arrested in Anstruther, Fife last month on a Trade and Co-operation Agreement warrant issued in France. Today, a preliminary hearing in his extradition case, which he was excused from attending, took place at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. His lawyer, who did not wish to be named, told the court that Reynouard does not consent to being sent back across the Channel

The 53-year-old’s lawyer asked for the matter to be continued at a further hearing next month to give him more time to prepare as he has just been appointed to the case. 

He said: ‘Mr Reynouard does not consent to extradition to France.

‘I was instructed at about 6pm last night and I do require some time to consider the matter.

‘There is a matter that is, I think, of legal significance that I need more time to consider.’

The 53-year-old’s lawyer asked for the matter to be continued at a further hearing next month to give him more time to prepare as he has just been appointed to the case. Reynouard first appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after his arrest last month. Pictured: Reynouard in 2007 

Reynouard first appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court after his arrest last month.

During that hearing on November 17, which he listened to via video link from HMP Edinburgh, his lawyer told the court that his client wished to instruct another lawyer.

Sheriff Norman McFadyen agreed to continue the case until January 12, with a full extradition hearing due to take place in February.

Reynouard remains remanded in custody.

The 53-year-old had been on the run since November 2020, after he posted a Holocaust denial video on YouTube. He was handed a four-month jail term in November 2020 and a further six months in January 2021. 

Reynouard was jailed in 1991, 2005 and 2015 for numerous separate offences including distributing leaflets and writing a brochure denying the Holocaust. In France, Holocaust denial has been a crime since 1990.

The 53-year-old, pictured in a Holocaust denial video, had been on the run since November 2020, after he posted a Holocaust denial video on YouTube and was handed a four-month jail term in November 2020 and a further six months in January 2021 

The search for Reynouard was led by France’s Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH). 

Their hunt began after the memorial of Oradour-sur-Glane, where Nazi troops killed and destroyed an entire village in June of 1944, was vandalised by graffiti which read ‘Reynouard is right’. 

In 1991, the 53-year-old was sentenced for distributing leaflets to high school students denying the existence of gas chambers. He was dismissed from his position as a Maths teacher in a secondary school in Honfleur, Normandy, by the French Education Minister, after the discovery of revisionist texts on the hard disk of his computer.

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

The search for Reynouard, pictured in 2007 at the Saverne court house, was led by France’s Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes (OCLCH)

A court in Saverne jailed him for a year in 2005 and fined him 10,000 euros 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 Facebook posts. In the same year, he was identified as a key member of network of propagandists ‘dedicated to the denial and distortion of the Holocaust’ in an analysis of the French far right by newspaper Liberation.

His most recent conviction was November 2020 for posting a Holocaust denial video on YouTube. The 53-year-old also has ties to Catholic fundamentalist groups that deny the Holocaust, such as Society of St. Pius X.

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