Vincent Reynouard sentenced to eight months in prison for Holocaust denial

Vincent Reynouard has been sentenced to eight months in prison by the Paris Criminal Court for Holocaust denial. The court found him guilty of publishing articles in the far-right weekly Rivarol between October 2024 and January 2025 that claimed Nazi gas chambers were a ‘technical impossibility’ and ‘Soviet propaganda.’

The judges noted that by denying the existence of gas chambers, Reynouard was contesting the existence of the Shoah itself. Additionally, the director of Rivarol was convicted of antisemitic insults for describing Jewish people as a ‘pathogenic agent.’

This ruling highlights the application of French law, specifically the Gayssot Law of 1990, which makes the denial of crimes against humanity a criminal offense rather than a matter of historical debate. The legal framework aims to prevent the spread of discourse that fuels antisemitism and hatred, a challenge exacerbated by the rapid circulation of content on digital platforms.