The Charleroi Correctional Court acquitted three out of four Belgian soldiers charged with Holocaust denial and incitement to hatred. The fourth soldier received a sentence of 75 hours of community service.
The accused were suspected of creating and participating in two Facebook groups named “Auschwitz” and “Hitler did nothing wrong.” Members of these groups shared violent, racist, antisemitic, homophobic, and xenophobic content.
To join the group, new members had to submit a gory video and were then given a pseudonym consisting of a Jewish name followed by a number, reminiscent of concentration camp practices.
Currently suspended from the military, the four soldiers admitted to the factual basis of the charges but claimed they were unaware of the reprehensible nature of their actions, considering themselves mere enthusiasts of dark and edgy humor. The prosecution sought a ten-month suspended prison sentence for one of the defendants and community service for the others.
In its ruling, the Correctional Court decided to acquit three of the soldiers, giving them the benefit of the doubt. The court noted that preliminary discussions showed an intention to share “eclectic but edgy content, without a necessary connection to World War II or concentration camps.” The fourth soldier was sentenced to community service for sending two images that grossly denied or trivialized the genocide committed during World War II.
