Dries Van Langenhove, the main suspect in the Schild & Vrienden (S&V) case, is also facing defamation charges filed against him by a Ghent University (UGent) assistant lecturer and PhD student.
His lawyer, Piet Noë, said that the former member of the far-right Vlaams Belang party would seek sentence consolidation in the Ghent Corrections Court, arguing that the defamation accusations should be included in the broader case without requiring a separate penalty.
A Court of First Instance had convicted the former Vlaams Belang (VB) member of parliament in March 2024, along with five other members of the S&V extremist group, for various violations of the Anti-Racism and Holocaust Denial laws, after he shared racist memes on the group’s social media pages.
The Court sentenced Van Langenhove to one year in prison, a €16,000 fine, and a 10-year ban from political office. He appealed against his sentence.
Six years earlier, in March 2018, the UGhent assistant lecturer anonymously created a Twitter account called “Schuld & vrienden” to reveal information about Van Langenhove far-right youth identity movement.
However, users of the 4chan forum managed to uncover the identity behind the account. Van Langenhove then shared an article on his Facebook page accusing the UGent researcher of exposing personal data of students linked to 'Schild & Vrienden.'
Van Langenhove also posted a videotaped message on Twitter accusing the PhD student of publishing private and banking information, addresses, names, and photos of children associated with or close to Schild & Vrienden.
According to Van Langenhove, the researcher had indulged in ‘doxxing,’— the posting of private information online to intimidate someone.
The UGent academic received death threats in retaliation and filed complaints against Van Langenhove and unidentified individuals, before deleting his social media accounts.
The case was introduced on Monday, with both Van Langenhove and J.V.O, another defendant involved in the S & V case, absent from the proceedings.
