Swiss writer who called journalist a ‘fat lesbian’ is jailed for two months
- Alain Bonnet, also known as Alain Soral, was slapped with jail time and fines
- He called Swiss journalist Catherine Macherel a ‘fat lesbian’ and ‘unhinged’
A Swiss writer and political commentator who called a journalist a ‘fat lesbian’ has been slapped with a 60-day prison sentence and thousands in fines in a ruling that has delighted LGBTQ+ groups.
The Lausanne court sentenced French-Swiss polemicist Alain Bonnet, who goes by the nom de plume Alain Soral, for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred on Monday.
He was ordered to pay legal fees and fines totalling thousands of Swiss francs in addition to the time behind bars.
Soral lashed out at Catherine Macherel, a journalist for Swiss newspapers Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures, in a Facebook video two years ago.
He called her a ‘fat lesbian’ and said Macherel’s work as a ‘queer activist’ meant she was ‘unhinged,’ according to Swiss public broadcaster RTS.
French-Swiss far-right writer Alain Soral, center, leaves the courthouse after his appeal trial for homophobia against a journalist in Lausanne, Switzerland, Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Soral lashed out at Catherine Macherel, a journalist for Swiss newspapers Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures, in a Facebook video two years ago
LGBTQ+ rights advocates were quick to praise the decision in the wake of the court’s ruling.
‘This court decision is an important moment for justice and rights of LGBTQI people in Switzerland,’ said Murial Waeger, co-director of the lesbian activist group LOS, in a statement.
‘The conviction of Alain Soral is a strong signal that homophobic hatred cannot be tolerated in our society.’
But Pascal Junod, a lawyer for Soral, mockingly blasted the conviction for a ‘crime of opinion’ and said the case aimed to probe whether a person had ‘sinned against the dogmas of single thought.’
Soral will appeal to Swiss federal court and ‘if necessary’ to the European Court of Human Rights, the lawyer wrote.
Waeger said the verdict represented a milestone in the application of a measure approved by Swiss voters in 2020 that made it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of sexual orientation.
The court ruled that Swiss-French essayist Alain Soral must spend 60-day in prison over a case of discrimination, defamation and incitation to hatred
It’s not the first time Soral has been convicted of a crime.
A Paris court in April 2019 convicted the writer for publishing on his internet site the conclusions of his lawyer, Damien Viguier, in an earlier case.
Viguier, who was fined 5,000 euros for his conclusions that were deemed to deny the Holocaust, said on Soral’s site that they were appealing the conviction.
Denying the Holocaust is a crime in France.
The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism praised the ruling, saying the decision to impose a prison sentence on Soral, convicted in the past, shows the ‘exceptional character’ of the decision.
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