Case Summary and Outcome

A Belgian First Instance Court convicted a Member of Parliament for various violations of the Anti-Racism and Holocaust Denial laws after he’d shared racist memes on a far-right activist youth movement’s social media pages. A television documentary on the far-right movement had exposed its inner workings and led to the Public Prosecutor opening a criminal investigation. In convicting the MP, the Court identified him as the “final boss” of the far-right movement and found that his hate speech “crosses the line of what is acceptable.” The Court sentenced him  to one year of imprisonment, a €16,000 fine, and a 10-year ban from political office, and convicted other members on some charges and imposed suspended prison sentences and €8,000 fines.

Columbia Global Freedom of Expression notes that some of the information contained in this report was derived from secondary sources.

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Facts

On September 5, 2018, the Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Organization (VRT) in Belgium aired a documentary on Schild & Vrienden (S&V), a far-right youth movement that had been gaining popularity. The documentary covered S&V’s public activities but also revealed its secret “inner workings” through an undercover journalist and discussed how S&V maintained private chat groups on Facebook and Discord where they shared racist material and Holocaust denial memes. 

The documentary prompted the Public Prosecutor to launch a criminal investigation and search warrants led to the confiscation of the VRT’s raw documentary footage and some suspects’ computers. Although Facebook refused to cooperate, NOBOT, an “ethical hacker”, was employed to verify the authenticity of (formerly deleted) racist and denialist posts in the Discord groups. [para. 7] Another expert used was “Textgain”, a company which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to track and analyze online hate speech and this expert report concluded that “large quantities of [racist and negationist] material were indeed present.” [para. 7] During interrogations, several of the suspects also admitted to the existence of the private Discord and Facebook groups.

Eleven members of S&V were charged with inciting racial discrimination, segregation, hatred, or violence against a group, a community, or its members (under Article 20, 3º and 4º Anti-Racism Law junto art. 444 Belgian Penal Code); denying, minimizing, justifying, or approving of the Holocaust (under Article 1 Holocaust Denialism Law); spreading ideas based on racial hatred and racial superiority (under Article 21 Anti-Racism Law); belonging to an association that promotes discrimination and segregation (under Article 22 Anti-Racism Law); and selling or offering for sale prohibited weapons (under Article 19 Weapons Law).

Dries Van Langenhove, the leader of S&V, was charged with all counts, while the other members faced at least two charges. [para. 7]

Although the documentary sparked significant public criticism, it also bolstered Van Langenhove’s political career: he ran as an independent front-runner for the far-right Vlaams Belang party [“Flemish Interest”] during the 2019 elections and won a seat in the federal parliament with over 39,000 preferential votes, making him the fourth most popular politician in the electoral province. However, in March 2021, a near-unanimous vote lifted Van Langenhove’s parliamentary immunity, allowing him to be sent to trial for his actions as the leader of S&V and in 2023, he voluntarily resigned his seat in the federal parliament to focus on his career as an “activist rather than a politician” and his upcoming S&V trial. 

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Decision Overview

A three-judge bench delivered the Court’s decision. The central issue for the Court’s determination was whether the sharing and creation of thousands of memes and messages in S&V’s private Facebook and Discord groups constituted violations of Anti-Racism and Holocaust Denial laws. 

Van Langenhove did not appear in Court. He claimed his right to an independent trial had been violated since the presiding judge was a “leftist swindler”. His lawyer refused to present a substantive plea and called the court “illegally constituted”.

The Court analyzed the different charges. 

The crime of inciting racial discrimination, segregation, hatred or violence against a group, a community or its members can only be committed if it takes place in a public space or a private space accessible for gatherings upon invitation. The S&V Facebook group had at least 750 members and the Discord group had 164 users and the Court found that both constituted “private spaces, accessible upon invitation” and therefore met the publicity requirement under Article 444 of the Belgian Penal Code [BPC]. In establishing the context to assess the posting of memes and messages, the Court examined whether the S&V members intended to incite racial discrimination or segregation and noted that the S&V Facebook and Discord groups “were directed towards like-minded individuals and those susceptible to a racist discourse”, that racial minorities were “repeatedly and systematically mocked on those forums” and that the “expression of racism was also encouraged on these forums”. [para. 13.2] The Court added that the S&V members’ defense that “sharing some jokes should be allowed”, was not applicable and that the “humor” used within S&V was “deliberately and systematically employed to make racism accessible and light-hearted”. [para. 13.2] The Court found that by “encouraging the frequent posting of racist and negationist ‘humor,’ the members were deliberately and gradually convinced of their own superiority and the necessity to achieve S&V’s objectives through discrimination and violence.” [para. 13.1] 

The Court examined the role of Van Langenhove, particularly as he was the only “group admin” of the social media pages and so was considered “the person ultimately in charge, the so-called ‘final boss’,” and was personally responsible for 5 021 posts. [para. 13.3] The Court gave examples of what it considered to be Van Langenhove’s “highly toxic content”, and found that he repeatedly instructed the creation of memes to normalize racial inferiority, thereby “creating an atmosphere of collective fanaticism that incited the posting of racist messages” and that “[a]t no point did he make an attempt to block the messages and images” and instead encouraged them. [para. 13.3]

The Court cited Textgain’s report which had found that the “most extreme insults seem to be directed against immigrants …. [who] are, for example, compared to primitive tribes, excrement, or target practice, described as scum, inbred, backward, aggressive, lazy, and their culture as inferior”. [para. 13.3]

Accordingly, the Court held that Van Langenhove and three other suspects who also posted memes about “Congo, interracial relations, and drowned immigrants washed up on the beach” on S&V’s social media were found guilty of inciting racism. [para. 13.5]

Examining the charges of denying, minimizing, justifying or approving of the Holocaust, the Court gave examples of various images, photos, and memes that were posted by the S&V members. It found that these images – at a minimum – “grossly minimized and endorsed the genocide during World War II”. [para. 14.1] The Court held that “given the objectives of S&V, the repetitive nature of these messages, images, and memes, the closed forums, the inciting language, and the proposed violence, [the images] can in no way be classified as humor or innocent jokes”. [para. 14.1] It found that “the spread of both denialist and racist messages or content was the ‘core business’ of S&V, whose goal is to make Flemish youth aware of their allegedly ‘pure’ Flemish identity.” [para. 14.2]

Although Van Langenhove did not post any Holocaust denial memes himself, the Court held him criminally responsible for them as he was the “leader of that organization [S&V] and the administrator and ultimately responsible person for those [Facebook and Discord] groups.” [para. 14.2] It found that he had “stimulated, facilitated, and tolerated” the sharing of Holocaust denial posts, thereby creating “an atmosphere of collective fanaticism”. [para. 14.2] 

The Court also convicted five other members of S&V who created or posted memes for Holocaust denial. 

In examining the charges of spreading ideas based on racial hatred and racial superiority, the Court provided examples of racist posts on the Facebook and Discord groups. In relation to some memes which suggested that black people were less attractive and poorer than white people, the Court stated that ‘[t]hese messages spread ideas based on alleged racial superiority and racial hatred, specifically the notion that Black people cannot support a family and that Black people are less attractive than white people, with the aim of inciting racial hatred and justifying a policy based on discrimination.’ [para. 15.6]

Van Langenhove was found guilty as the leader and administrator of the group, as well as for fanning the flames with his racist posts. Five other members were also convicted for violating Article 21 of the Anti-Racism Law. One of them created a meme of Leopold II (the late King of Belgium responsible for the colonization of Congo) greeting President Barack Obama, whose hands have been cut off. The Court noted that “[i]t can no longer be considered mere crude humor. The image of the severed hands—in the context of Congo—refers to the severed hands of Black slaves in Belgian Congo, evoking and spreading the notion that Black people are inferior”. [para. 15.5]

On the charges of belonging to an association that promotes discrimination and segregation, the Court stressed that it is not necessary for the association to be held personally responsible for a violation of the Anti-Racism Law but that, for this crime to be committed, the group must “apparently and repeatedly advocate discrimination or segregation,” and the suspect must “knowingly and willingly belong to this group or association or provide assistance to it”. [para. 16.1] The Court found that, although S&V does not have legal personality, it was an informal association with sustainability and structure: the S&V website described itself as a “Flemish nationalist youth movement,” and the group members had their own uniform, website, Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts, and business cards and its website sold  branded merchandise to help finance their activities. Accordingly, the Court held that “it was an organization with a hierarchy, specific objectives, and its own policies.” [para. 16.1]

The Court found that the three other charges demonstrated that the association was used to promote discrimination and segregation. Van Langenhove was again found guilty of this offence as the “founder and de facto leader … [and] the mastermind behind everything”. [para. 16.2] Six other members were also found guilty of belonging to a racist association, for smaller roles or for being moderators in the chat group and as some of them had actively cooperated in the removal of incriminating evidence after the documentary was broadcast. [para. 16.3]

The Court sentenced Van Langenhove to one-year prison sentence, a criminal fine of 16,000 euros, and a 10-year ban from political life on these charges, in terms of Article 31, para. 1 of the Belgian Penal Code. Van Landenhove was also found guilty of selling or offering for sale of prohibited weapons for offering pepper spray for sale on the internet to his fellow members, for which he was given a suspended prison sentence of 10 months and a criminal fine of 8,000 euros. The Court found that Van Langenhove’s hate speech “crosses the line of what is acceptable:” and stated that he had “demonstrated an extreme lack of morals and contempt for fundamental values and rights [and] abused fundamental rights and freedoms to infringe upon and deny those of others”. [para. 21] It added that he had “sought to undermine democratic society and replace it with his model of white supremacy.” [para. 21]

Five other accused were given lower sentences since they were merely “followers” or “sympathizers” [para. 22] and were given suspended prison sentences of 6 months and (partially) suspended fines of 8,000 euros. [para. 39]

The Court found that one suspect showed genuine remorse and distanced himself from his past actions by apologizing to the civil parties and so granted him the favor of probation which stipulates that as long as he committed no further crimes he would not receive a punishment. 

Van Langenhove and five other convicts filed for an appeal, which is still pending.

NOTE: A crowdfunding campaign titled “Set Dries Free” raised over 35,000 euros to help cover Van Langenhove’s criminal fines and legal expenses.

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