ThoughtCrime: 04/10/92
France Convicts Two for Distributing Pamphlets
On April 10, the appeals court in Caen (Normandy) upheld convictions against
Vincent Reynouard, a 23-year-old chemical engineer, and Remi Pontier, an
information engineer, for distributing leaflets and stickers that question
the existence of extermination gas chambers in Third Reich concentration
camps.
The two defendants were convicted on the basis of the Fabius/Gayssot
law of July 1990 that makes it illegal to call into question "crimes against
humanity" as specified by the Nuremberg Tribunal. In practice, this law
applies only to those who call into question alleged crimes against Jews.
Four organizations of wartime Jewish and non-Jewish deportees had brought
the charges in this case.
Reynouard was given a two-month suspended prison sentence, and Pontier
was given a 15-day suspended prison sentence. More important, the two were
also ordered to pay a total of 6,000 francs (about $1,200) in damages to
the four organizations, and 1,675 francs in court costs. In addition, the
two will have to pay the possibly considerable cost of publishing an announcement
about the verdict in a major daily newspaper.
As a result of their legal costs, the two young men are broke and not
able to pay the fines. French law does not permit a third person to pay
a fine on behalf of an accused person.
Adapted from IHR Newsletter July/August 1992 No.88 PO Box 2739, Newport
Beach, CA 92659.
The THOUGHTCRIME ARCHIVES is a series designed as a cooperative effort
to aid and assist the Revisionist community by reporting acts of censorship,
violence, and other outrages perpetrated against revisionists.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime IS death." George Orwell
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