French-Swiss writer sentenced to jail for calling journalist 'fat lesbian' hopes to win appeal, lawyer says

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A far-right French-Swiss writer and commentator who received jail time and a heavy fine in Switzerland for lambasting a lesbian journalist is appealing his case to a federal court and hopes for vindication, his lawyer said.

Alain Bonnet, who goes by Alain Soral, was sentenced last week by the Lausanne court to 60 days in jail for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred after he criticized Catherine Macherel, a journalist for Swiss newspapers Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures, in a Facebook video two years ago. Soral was convicted in France for violating its laws on Holocaust denial in 2019 and also jailed, according to the Associated Press.

Soral called Macherel a "fat lesbian" and a "queer activist" who was "unhinged." According to a division of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, public prosecutor Eric Kaltenrieder said, "These are not just words; they are messages. Mr. Soral has hatred and contempt for homosexuals." The Swiss outlet added Kaltenrieder had called for three months in jail for Soral as a way to dissuade him from "re-offending," as he has been convicted numerous times in France for breaking laws on speech over antisemitism and incitement to hatred. 

A lawyer for Soral told Fox News Digital that they had faith the Swiss legal system would right what they view as an unjust punishment of his speech.

SWISS WRITER BEING JAILED FOR INSULTING LESBIAN JOURNALIST ALARMS FREE SPEECH ADVOCATES 

French-Swiss far-right writer Alain Soral, middle, arrives at the courthouse for his appeal trial for homophobia against a journalist, in Lausanne, Switzerland, Wednesday, September 27, 2023. The court ruled that Swiss-French essayist Alain Soral must spend 60 days in prison over a case of discrimination, defamation and incitation to hatred for deriding a newspaper journalist as a "fat lesbian."  (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

"I firmly believe that the principles of freedom of speech are important in this case, and I am committed to defending those principles," attorney Pascal Junod said in an email to Fox News Digital.

"I did say that this is a crime of opinion," he added. "My contention is that the prosecution has focused on my client’s controversial thoughts and his entire career rather the specific words used and their meaning. It is crucial to clarify that my client did not attack or harm the LGBT community. Instead, he responded to an unmoderated article about them."

He added that compared to the legal approaches in democratic countries such as the U.S., the "severity of the conviction appears disproportionate."

"However, I maintain my faith in the Swiss legal system and believe that the federal court provides an excellent opportunity to present our arguments more comprehensively and to seek a fair and just resolution to this case," he wrote. "My commitment to upholding the principle of freedom of speech remains unwavering, and I am hopeful that the federal court will carefully consider our appeal."

Soral is no stranger to controversy and has been a backer of both far-right and far-left causes. According to The Times of Israel, Soral was sentenced to one year imprisonment for insulting a magistrate and making antisemitic comments on his website. According to the report, he called Jews "manipulative, domineering and hateful." In 2016, he was fined and received a suspended prison sentence for saying the Nazis should have finished "the job," and he's also been punished for mocking or denying the Holocaust.

Of the latter about "the job," Soral told Fox News Digital, "I was convicted - abusively - for the sentence: "This is what happens when you don't finish the job", which was a comment on Facebook about a statement by Arno Klarsfeld (who, by the way, is not Jewish, his mother is German). I've never been convicted of a sentence that included the word ‘Nazi’ or ‘Hitler’, not in this trial or any other."

"Most of my convictions, moreover, are due to the fact that I am the de facto publication director (by conviction) of the Égalité & Réconciliation website. Condemnations for cartoons - which were not mine, articles - which were not mine, or comments - which were not mine. And all this following complaints from civil parties - who are never directly involved!"

SWISS WRITER WHO CALLED JOURNALIST ‘FAT LESBIAN’ SENTENCED TO 60 DAYS IN PRISON, LGBTQ GROUPS APPLAUD DECISION

A French court sentenced Soral to 60 days in jail for the crimes of defamation, discrimination and incitement. (Fox News)

Soral emailed a response on Monday to charges he's antisemitic.

"First of all, I'm called anti-Semitic for my support for Palestine and my opposition to the Gayssot memorial laws, which don't exist in the United States because they're unconstitutional," he wrote to Fox News Digital. "In fact, I'm an author who refers a lot to Karl Marx (which isn't very anti-Semitic), who has dedicated two of his books to Lucien Goldmann (a Romanian Jewish sociologist) and Georg Lukács (a Hungarian Jewish philosopher), three Jews I consider to be great thinkers, without worrying about whether they're great Jews or not?"

"The reality is that I say all the good things I think about Jews who do good (I'm the editor of several of them, including Bernard Lazare and Abraham Léon), and all the bad things I think about Jews who do bad, like Bernard-Henri Lévy, according to the same universal moral criteria," he added.

He added he would not submit to "moral blackmail" on the subject.

Soral's latest case has drawn international attention; after it was reported by the AP wire service last week, some figures in the U.S. warned it was a possible harbinger of changes to free speech laws in the United States. 

Even X owner Elon Musk weighed in, saying it was "rude" but questioned how Soral's invective rose to the level of a criminal offense.

The Committee to Protect Journalists declined comment on the case. Amnesty International, which supports global freedom of expression, didn't respond to a request for comment.

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Fox News' Brian Flood and Lawrence Richard contributed to this report. This article was updated with a response by Soral.