A Belgian appeals court has upheld the 18-month prison sentence imposed on French neo-Nazi Olivier Mathieu for anti-Semitic libel against Belgian Jewish journalist Maurice Serfatty here in 1988.
Mathieu, a habitual Holocaust-denier well known in right-wing extremist circles, was sentenced in absentia, having taken refuge in France after his conviction.
Mathieu attacked Serfatty at a local news conference, calling him a “seedy Mossad agent” and a “traitor working for a foreign power.” Mossad is the Israeli intelligence agency.
The appeals court found that such remarks constituted “calumny that might harm the journalistic reputation” of Serfatty, who writes a local column under the pen name Serge Dumont.
The Coordinating Committee of Belgian Jewish Organizations appeared as plaintiff at the trial, arguing that Mathieu’s attack on Serfatty constituted an attack on the Jewish community.
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