French holocaust denier faces extradition from Scotland

Vincent Reynouard was arrested in Anstruther in Fife after a two-year search by French authorities

A court has ordered that a Holocaust denier who spent two years on the run in Scotland should be extradited.

The French authorities want to put Vincent Reynouard on trial for challenging the existence of crimes against humanity.

The 54-year-old was arrested in November last year after being traced to the East Neuk of Fife.

Sheriff Christopher Dickson has ruled that the alleged offences would amount to an offence under Scots Law.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard there was no barrier to his extradition going ahead.

• French Holocaust denier appears in Scottish court

The Frenchman has been remanded in custody and plans to appeal against the decision.

Reynouard was arrested by Police Scotland officers in Anstruther. He was reported to have been living in the town under a false name and working as an online tutor.

A history of denial

Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990 and Reynouard has several convictions.

He was sentenced to four months in jail in 2020 and six months in January 2021.

In 1997, he was sacked from his job as a maths teacher at a secondary school in Honfleur, Normandy. His dismissal came after the discovery of revisionist texts on his computer hard disk.

He was also found giving his students statistical equations regarding the rate of mortality in Nazi concentration camps.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously described Reynouard as a "despicable Holocaust denier who has repeatedly been convicted by French courts".

The charity said his first Holocaust denial conviction was in 1991 for distributing leaflets dismissing the existence of gas chambers at concentration camps.