Two young college graduates associated with a neo-Nazi movement were tried in Caen last week for distributing literature denying the Holocaust, a misdemeanor under a law passed in July 1990.
The Court of Justice in Caen, western France, will rule on the case Dec. 4. But whatever the verdict, Vincent Raynouard, 22, and Remi Pontier, 24, will face minimal punishment.
The prosecution has asked for a six-month suspended sentence and a fine of about $900 for Raynouard, and a two-month suspended sentence and fine equivalent to $450 for Pontier.
The defense attorney claimed his clients were victims of a witch hunt and denounced the law that criminalizes Holocaust revisionism.
The defendants were also indicted for circulating material inciting racial hatred, anti-Semitism and xenophobia.
They are active members of a neo-Nazi organization, the French and European Nationalist Party, which has been involved in attacks on hostels sheltering migrant workers.
A lawyer for the Association of Jewish Deportees said the two defendants were trying to whitewash Nazism to pave the way for its revival.
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