A Belgian court has convicted right-wing political activist Dries Van Langenhove for a second time on hate speech-related charges. The decision follows previous proceedings in which he was already sentenced in connection with violations of racism laws in 2024.
Van Langenhove addressed the outcome in a public post on X, writing: "A very sad announcement. I have just been convicted a second time for 'hate speech' and it is only due to a technicality that I could not immediately be sent to jail —to the judge's frustration," he wrote, calling it an "ironic turn of events."
"It's actually thanks to my previous prison sentence (for memes in a private group chat) that I am now still free —in a physical sense, at least."
Van Langenhove was previously sentenced in 2024 to one year in prison and fined €24,000 in a Ghent court ruling involving multiple defendants tied to racism and negationism charges, including Holocaust denial through memes in a group chat. The case against the defendants also involved civil parties, including NGOs such as Unia and the Human Rights League, the University of Ghent, and others.
"Call me naive but I didn't think they would take it this far, given that this precedent criminalises many of the arguments used by even the most moderate politicians critical of mass migration.
"In February 2024 I gave a lecture at Catholic University Leuven wherein I linked mass migration to crime and a deterioration of our quality of life. Every single point I made was 100% the truth and based on scientific evidence.
"Cynically, even the judge that convicted me admits as much by writing in his verdict: 'Even if all of the statements made by Van Langenhove are based on scientific evidence and statistics, it makes no difference to the criminal intent. Van Langenhove is not charged with spreading false information. He is charged with presenting facts in a way that incites hatred against persons on the grounds of one or more of the protected criteria in the Anti-Racism Law.'”
"That's a lot of words just to say he wants to send me to prison for speaking the truth," he wrote. "... Both the public prosecutor and the judge did not present a single real argument as to how or against whom I would have incited hatred. So even if I would accept their crazy, dystopic law, I still did not break it.
"The only argument they present is that I created a 'hostile atmosphere of us versus them' in regards to migrants. But even this silly argument (which is not even a punishable offence) is not true. To me, the deadly disease is self-hatred and one of its worst symptoms is replacement migration. My enemy is thus NOT the migrants themselves but those orchestrating the mass migration.
"Sadly, in Belgium, evidence is not needed and ‘vibes’ are enough to put someone in jail," he argued. "Given the fact that I have another court case coming up in September and that I have a dozen active criminal investigations for hate speech, time is running out for me. I have already paid more than €420,000 in legal fees and there is no ending in sight. I have been in an intense battle of attrition for eight years and must now regroup to make sure I can still win.
That earlier judgment also barred him from holding public office for 10 years and included convictions related to membership in an organization accused of promoting discrimination and segregation, as well as incitement to hatred and violence under Belgian law.
