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In Switzerland, You'll Get a Prison Sentence for Saying This
Townhall ^ | 10/07/23 | Leah Barkoukis

Posted on 10/07/2023 4:32:42 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

A Swiss writer has been fined and sentenced to 60 days in prison for a speech crime that's made international headlines.

While Alain Bonnet is a controversial figure, in this instance, he was sentenced for defamation, discrimination, and incitement to hatred for calling journalist Catherine Macherel a “fat lesbian” in a Facebook video two years ago, Fox News Digital reports.

This won’t be the first time he’s served a prison sentence. He was previously jailed in France over his Holocaust denials, a crime in the country.  

The Franco-Swiss writer had initially been convicted of defamation at the first instance in 2022, and received a day's fine. However, the Vaud public prosecutor's office lodged an appeal and won the case at the end of last week's appeal.

The sentence handed down by the cantonal court amounts to 60 days' imprisonment, said Vincent Derouand, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office, on Monday, confirming a report by Swiss public radio RTS. The essayist, who celebrated his 65th birthday on Monday, can still appeal to the Federal Court.

Soral, whose real name is Alain Bonnet, was on trial for comments he made about a journalist from La Tribune de Genève and 24 heures. After she wrote an article in 2021 that was not to his liking, Soral posted a video online in which he called the journalist a "fat lesbian" and a "queer activist", implying that the latter term meant "degenerate".

Repeat offender

According to the public prosecutor's office, these comments are not just defamatory. "These are not just words; they are messages. Mr. Soral has hatred and contempt for homosexuals," said Eric Kaltenrieder, the public prosecutor.

Kaltenrieder had asked for three months' imprisonment as part of a "penal logic" to "dissuade the defendant from re-offending", since Soral had already been convicted on some 20 occasions in France, largely for offences of provocation to hatred, defamation and anti-Semitic insult. (Swissinfo)

Though it's shocking to Americans, this type of "intolerance and repression" is already in the U.S. on some college campuses, Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson told Fox News Digital. 

"The problem with punishing 'hate' speech is, who gets to decide what is hate speech? Free speech then becomes subject to the whims of the people with power," Jacobson said. "Europe is just a few years ahead of us, and will be our future if we are not careful."

 



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: freespeech; prison; switzerland
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To: ProtectOurFreedom
Some of them want to skip right over punishing mean things you say and go straight to deprogramming in the camps.

Or straight to the extermination camps.

21 posted on 10/07/2023 5:46:55 PM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: Manic_Episode

40 years in prison for you bro. /S 😊


22 posted on 10/07/2023 5:49:14 PM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: SeekAndFind

I have contempt for prosecutor Eric Kaltenrieder.


23 posted on 10/07/2023 5:56:28 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: Mark17

I’ll write it all over the walls of my cell with my own feces if I have to =P


24 posted on 10/07/2023 5:58:19 PM PDT by Manic_Episode (A government of the government, by the government, for the government)
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To: Manic_Episode

👍👍👍👍👍


25 posted on 10/07/2023 6:02:22 PM PDT by Mark17 (Retired USAF air traffic controller. Father of USAF Captain & pilot. Both bitten by the aviation bug)
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To: gibsonguy

So far…usually…


26 posted on 10/07/2023 7:17:06 PM PDT by bigbob (Q)
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To: SeekAndFind

The Swiss also tend to frown upon anyone noticing and verbally affirming that their cheese is full of mouse tunnels...


      

27 posted on 10/07/2023 7:17:10 PM PDT by Songcraft
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To: politicket

The Swiss don’t even have their own language so basically they don’t have a phrase for “fat lesbian”. Sounds like “fat lesbian” will have to do.


28 posted on 10/07/2023 7:39:25 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Prosecutors say Trump may have broken the law admiring gun in South Carolina" ROTFLMAO!)
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To: SeekAndFind

I looked up her picture and she’s just as he described.


29 posted on 10/07/2023 7:52:27 PM PDT by GaryCrow
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To: SeekAndFind

Punishment for calling a fat lesbian a fat lesbian proves part three of my tagline.


30 posted on 10/07/2023 8:46:24 PM PDT by JimRed (TERM LIMITS, NOW! Militia to the border! TRUTH is the new HATE SPEECH.)
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To: SeekAndFind

hate speech is personal and applys only to those who are a protected class who can rely on the government to arrest and prosecute.


31 posted on 10/08/2023 2:43:20 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: GaryCrow

How’s this: “Her body is laden with an unhealthy overabundance of fat cells and she prefers to have sex with women who look just like her.”


32 posted on 10/08/2023 3:53:56 AM PDT by equaviator (If 60 is the new 40 then 35 must be the new 15.)
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