Belgium’s Far-Right Prodigy Gets Prison Term for Inciting Violence

A key figure in the Belgian far right was sentenced Tuesday morning to a year in prison and handed a heavy fine.

Dries Van Langenhove, a political activist and leader of a Flemish-nationalist youth movement called Schild & Vrienden, was convicted of inciting violence and denying the Holocaust, the Ghent criminal court ruled Tuesday morning.

Van Langenhove as well as six other members of his far-right youth movement were tried on various charges including hatred, racism, Holocaust denial and breaching a local gun law. {snip}

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{snip} A 2018 TV report by public broadcaster VRT showed that members of the group were exchanging racist and antisemitic messages in group chats, triggering a judicial investigation into the movement.

Van Langenhove ran for elected office in 2019 and sat in the country’s federal parliament from 2019-2023 as an independent member in the political group of Vlaams Belang {snip}

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The judgment also deprived Van Langenhove of certain civil rights for a period of 10 years, during which he won’t be able to serve in public office or run in elections. {snip}

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