French Holocaust denier found in Fife loses extradition fight

Photograph: Universal News and Sport Scotland/UNPIXS

A Holocaust denier who was arrested in a Scottish fishing village will be extradited back to France after spending two years on the run from the authorities.

Vincent Reynouard lost his extradition battle after his arrest in November 2022. He had been discovered living a double life in Anstruther, Fife, where he worked as a private tutor, according to reports.

Reynouard, 54, was remanded in custody while French authorities launched an extradition bid, citing videos in which he allegedly denied the existence of gas chambers in concentration camps, PA Media reported.

A domestic warrant issued by a French court referred to seven videos made between September 2019 and April 2020, including one in which he allegedly described the Nazi atrocities as “crude slanders” and another where he spoke of “the Jewish problem”.

The alleged offences include “public trivialisation of a war crime” and “public challenge to the existence of crimes against humanity committed during the second world war”.

Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990, and Reynouard has been convicted on previous occasions, including being given prison sentences in November 2020 and January 2021.

After a hearing at Edinburgh sheriff court in October last year, Sheriff Christopher Dickson said the YouTube videos were “beyond the pale of what is tolerable in our society” and were a breach of the Communications Act. He ruled that extradition could go ahead.

Reynouard challenged the extradition but his application for leave to appeal was refused. A written judgment by Lord Carloway at the court of appeal, issued on Friday, said extradition “cannot be regarded as disproportionate” and that “any reasonable person” would be offended by the videos.

He said the criminality involved in sharing offensive videos online was “one of relative seriousness judged by Scottish standards”.

The judgment said: “The videos were, taken at their highest, racist denials of the existence of the Holocaust and other war crimes.”

It added: “The phenomenon of ‘fake news’, in the context of the internet and social media, is well known, as are its damaging effects.”

PA Media contributed to this report