A court in Geneva, Switzerland, sentenced a French-Swiss writer 60 days in jail and fined him thousands of dollars on Monday for calling a journalist a “fat lesbian.”
The writer, Alain Soral, raged at journalist Catharine Macherel in a Facebook video two years ago, in which he called her a “fat lesbian” and said her “queer work” is “unhinged,” according to NBC News. The Lausanne court sentenced him for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred.
Macherel is a journalist for Swiss newspapers Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures, according to the outlet.
Switzerland sentences a journalist to 60 days in jail for calling a journalist a “fat lesbian.”
NBC News trumpets it as a great victory for civil rights.
Don’t forget who these people are, and what they would do to you if they had the power. pic.twitter.com/IQUh5oa405
— Richard Hanania (@RichardHanania) October 4, 2023
Soral’s lawyer, Pascal Junod, said the defendant faced state persecution for the “crime of opinion,” NBC News reported. Soral plans to appeal the case to a Swiss federal court and “if necessary” to the European Court of Human Rights, according to the outlet. (RELATED: Autistic Teen Dragged From Home, Charged With Hate Crime For Saying Cop Looked Like Her Lesbian Grandma)
“This court decision is an important moment for justice and rights of LGBTQI people in Switzerland,” Murial Waeger, co-director of the lesbian activist group LOS, said, per NBC. “The conviction of Alain Soral is a strong signal that homophobic hatred cannot be tolerated in our society.”
Swiss voters approved a measure in 2020 that criminalizes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, NBC News reported.
Soral has also been convicted numerous times in France for denying the Holocaust in 2019, which is a crime in that country, according to the outlet.