A Scottish court has ruled that Vincent Reynouard, a convicted Holocaust denier who spent two years on the run, will be extradited back to France to face trial. Reynouard, 54, was arrested in November of last year after being located in Fife.
During a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday, Reynouard was informed that he would be returned to France to face charges including “public trivialisation of a war crime” and “public incitement to hatred.”
Reynouard’s defence lawyers argued that under UK extradition law, individuals can only be sent back to their home country if there is an equivalent crime in the UK to the one for which they are being prosecuted abroad. Defence advocate Fred Mackintosh KC stated that there is no equivalent law in Scotland to Holocaust denial, and therefore his client should not be extradited.
However, Sheriff Chris Dickson ruled against the defence’s argument. In a written judgment explaining his decision, Sheriff Dickson referred to a video published by Reynouard.
Sheriff Dickson concluded that while Reynouard did not explicitly call for the extermination of the Jewish people, his actions in the video would constitute an offence under Scottish law, and therefore he could be extradited.
Reynouard was apprehended in Anstruther on November 10, 2022, on a Trade and Cooperation Agreement warrant. He is wanted in France where authorities believe he is guilty of denying the Holocaust, which is an offence under French law.
Reports indicate that Reynouard had been using a false identity while working as a private tutor after evading authorities for two years before his arrest. The search for him was led by France’s Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes.
The investigation into Reynouard began after the memorial of Oradour-sur-Glane, a village where Nazi troops killed and destroyed an entire village in June 1944, was vandalised with graffiti that read “Reynouard is right.”
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