In the case of Schild & Vrienden, the Ghent Court of Appeal has sentenced founder and former Vlaams Belang MP, Dries Van Langenhove, to a suspended one-year prison sentence and a fine of €1,600 for spreading racial hatred.
The convicted MP's sentenced has been lowered due to the reasonable time limit in the case has been now exceeded, given that he was able to repeatedly delay the court case.
The investigation began in September 2018 following a ‘Pano’ documentary that revealed racist and anti-Semitic messages were shared in secret chat groups of Schild & Vrienden. Dries Van Langenhove was formally charged in June 2019.
Initially, the correctional court sentenced Van Langenhove to a one-year effective prison term for violating racism and negationism laws and a ten-month suspended sentence for firearms law violations, along with a €24,000 fine. Six other co-defendants were also held accountable under racism legislation.
Van Langenhove’s deputy received an eight-month suspended prison sentence and an €8,000 fine. Four other defendants received six-month suspended prison sentences with half of their €8,000 fines also suspended. The final defendant’s sentencing was postponed, contingent upon conditions including a supervised visit to the Kazerne Dossin in Mechelen.
Except for the last defendant, all others decided to appeal the verdict. Van Langenhove announced his intention to appeal on 9 January 2024, during the initial trial, arguing via social media that he believed he would not receive a fair trial. His lawyer, Hans Rieder, unsuccessfully filed a request on 10 October 2023 to recuse the presiding judge and two other judges.
The Court of Appeal has now ruled that the reasonable time limit in the case has been exceeded. This is remarkable, given that Van Langenhove delayed the case for years with procedural manoeuvres.
"If the reasonable time limit had not been exceeded, the court would have sentenced D. (Van Langenhove) to a prison sentence of eighteen months with a regular suspension and a fine of €500. Now that this is the case, the court reduces the prison sentence to twelve months with suspension and an effective fine of 200 euros (times eight, ed.).
The defendant meets the legal conditions for a suspended sentence. An effective prison sentence has no added value in this case. However, the fine must remain effective. The court imposes this fine to compensate for the significant social costs incurred by the defendant in the form of police and judicial resources. The alternative prison sentence imposed by the court is sufficient to encourage him to pay the fine," according to the judgment.
In the first instance, Van Langenhove was deprived of his civil rights for ten years, but the court did not follow this. "For the entirety of the offences punished, the court can only impose the principal and additional penalties provided for in the criminal law that determines the most severe penalty.
Since the Weapons Act provides for the most severe penalty for D. and that Act does not provide for deprivation of the rights referred to in Article 31, first paragraph, of the Criminal Code, the court cannot order such deprivation.
After the verdict, Van Langenhove has said he is appealing to the Supreme Court and "then, if necessary, to the European Court of Justice." He made this statement after the Ghent Court of Appeal handed down a lower sentence.
