A Swiss writer who called a journalist a “fat lesbian” has been sentenced to 60 days in prison, according to reports from Fox News and Associated Press. Now, LGBTQ+ groups are applauding the court’s decision to charge Alain Bonnet aka Alain Soral with defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred.
Murial Waeger, co-director of a lesbian activist group said, “This court decision is an important moment for justice and rights of LGBTQI people in Switzerland. The conviction of Alain Soral is a strong signal that homophobic hatred cannot be tolerated in our society."
Soral took aim at Swiss journalist Catherine Macherel in a video posted to Facebook two years ago, criticizing her work as a “queer activist,” calling her “unhinged” and a “fat lesbian,” according to Swiss public broadcaster RTS.
Soral was also ordered to pay thousands of Swiss francs in legal fees and fines along with the lengthy prison sentence.
In a letter to the Associated Press, Soral’s lawyer Pascal Junod averred his client was convicted of a “crime of opinion” and that the case aimed to probe whether a person had “sinned against the dogmas of single thought.”
He also said his client will appeal to Swiss federal court and the European Court of Human Rights “if necessary.”
Swiss voters approved a measure in 2020 that made discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation illegal.
Soral had previously been convicted in France multiple times for denying the Holocaust, which is a crime there, and sentenced to jail time in 2019.
