A “despicable” Holocaust denier detained in Fife after apparently spending two years on the run has been remanded in custody ahead of an extradition battle.
Vincent Reynouard, 53, was told he would have to remain in a Scottish prison following a short appearance on Thursday at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
The former teacher was apprehended in Anstruther on November 10 2022 on a Trade and Co-operation Agreement warrant.
The Courier has told how he had stayed relatively anonymously, working as a tutor, in the Fife village.
He is wanted in France as the authorities there believe he is guilty of denying the Holocaust took place, which is an offence.
Solicitor change
On Thursday, Reynouard observed proceedings via video link from prison.
He watched as solicitor Andrew Docherty told Sheriff Norman McFadyen he wanted to withdraw from acting for the French citizen.
Mr Docherty told the court his client wanted to instruct another solicitor to act in the case.
Sheriff McFadyen agreed to the request.
He told Reynouard he would have to remain in prison ahead of proceedings which will take place in the new year to determine whether he should be returned to his homeland.
Reports suggest Reynouard was using a false identity while working as a private tutor after evading French authorities for two years before being arrested.
His arrest came after a two-year search for his whereabouts led by France’s Central Office for the Fight against Crimes against Humanity and Hate Crimes.
The investigation began after the memorial of Oradour-sur-Glane, in which Nazi troops killed and destroyed an entire village in June of 1944, was vandalised by graffiti which read ‘Reynouard is right’.
Past crimes
Reynouard was first convicted of Holocaust denial in 1991.
He was detained after handing out leaflets denying the existence of gas chambers.
In 1997, he was sacked from his job as a maths teacher at a secondary school in Honfleur, Normandy 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.
In 2005 Reynouard was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment and fined 10,000 Euros by a court for writing a 16-page brochure entitled ‘Holocaust? Here’s what’s kept hidden from you*’.
This was sent to French tourism offices, museums and town halls.
In 2015, he was sentenced to two years in jail by a court in Normandy for denying the Holocaust in a series of Facebook posts.
His most recent conviction came in November 2020 for posting a Holocaust denial video on YouTube.
Remand welcomed
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomed his detention in Scotland.
A statement read: “Vincent Reynouard is a despicable Holocaust denier who has repeatedly been convicted by French courts.
“For him to have evaded justice, only to settle in the UK as a private tutor teaching children, is intolerable, which is why we worked with French Jewish organisations to secure his extradition so that he faces the consequences of his abhorrent incitement.
“We are pleased that, after months of investigations and, along with Lord Austin, correspondence with police and the criminal justice authorities, he has now finally been caught.”
Full hearing next year
Mr Docherty told the court this client had been granted funding from the Scottish Legal Aid Board to fight the latest case and the mandate would be transferred to Mr Reynouard’s legal team.
Mr Docherty said the case needed to be postponed for Reynouard’s lawyers to prepare their client’s defence.
Sheriff McFadyen agreed to the request and fixed a new date for a procedural hearing to take place.
He will return to court on December 8 2022 before a full hearing on February 23 2023.
