The Vaudois cantonal prosecutor's office in Switzerland announced on Tuesday that it had appealed in the case opposing it to the far-right Franco-Swiss essayist Alain Soral, believing that he should have been sentenced to imprisonment at the end of the trial. of his trial in December.
From his real name Alain Bonnet, Alain Soral, who has lived in Lausanne since October 2019, escaped imprisonment in Switzerland last December but was fined for insulting a journalist whom he had called a “
fat lesbian
”.
The president of the Lausanne police court (Western Switzerland) considered that her remarks were defamation but not incitement to hatred against the homosexual community.
Incitement to hatred
The Vaud public prosecutor's office considers that it is otherwise.
"
The facts alleged against Alain Soral, in addition to the defamation for which he was sentenced to a day-fine, do constitute an offense of discrimination and incitement to hatred and therefore require a custodial sentence of 3 months.
“, he said Tuesday in a press release.
The Attorney General of the canton of Vaud, Eric Kaltenrieder, considers that the remarks made by Alain Soral were "
homophobic and that they incited hatred and discrimination
", and therefore fall under the scope of art.
261bis of the Penal Code which applies, since July 1, 2020, to discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Read alsoCatholic teaching cries out against discrimination
“
It is essential that the Cantonal Court settle this question and establish case law
,” said Eric Kaltenrieder in the press release.
The appeal was sent on February 20 to the Court of Criminal Appeal of the Cantonal Vaudois Court (CAPE).
Criminalization of homophobia
The criminalization of homophobia is recent in Switzerland, ratified at the beginning of 2020 by a popular vote.
This new provision broadens existing legislation in the fight against discrimination and incitement to racial or religious hatred, by extending it to sexual orientation.
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Alain Soral, 64, has already been convicted twenty times in France, largely for offenses of incitement to hatred, defamation and public insult.
In Switzerland, he was sentenced in early April 2022 to three months in prison by criminal order, prosecutors having the power to sentence to terms of up to six months in prison.
He appealed and escaped imprisonment after the hearing in December.
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