(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) A court in Switzerland sentenced a writer and political commentator to two months in jail after he called a journalist a “fat lesbian,” Fox News reported.
Alain Bonnet, who writes under the pen name Alain Soral, was sentenced by a court for committing crimes of defamation, discrimination, and incitement to hatred for having the gall to call obese homosexual journalist Catherine Macherel a “fat lesbian” two years ago in a since-deleted Facebook video.
This is Catherine Macherel, the journalist that Alain Soral described.
Objectively accurate, I'd say. pic.twitter.com/oNF3qgd8az
— Big Jarhead (@big_jarhead) October 4, 2023
Macherel writes for the Swiss newspapers Tribune de Genève and 24 Heures.
Soral also criticized Macheral’s work, calling her a “queer activist” who is “unhinged.”
His lawyer, Pascal Junod, lamented the court’s decision, noting that his client is being punished for a “crime of opinion” and adding that all Soral is guilty of is sinning “against the dogmas of single thought.”
The decision was applauded openly by pro-LGBT groups, in particular by Murial Waeger, co-director of a lesbian activist group.
According to Waeger, “this court decision is an important moment for justice and rights of LGBTQI people in Switzerland.”
Waeger also celebrated the aggressive legal enforcement of tolerance that the court ordered.
“The conviction of Alain Soral is a strong signal that homophobic hatred cannot be tolerated in our society,” she said
According to the activist, the verdict represents a milestone in Swiss history after the passage of a 2020 law against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
Yet, Swiss Justice Minister Karin Keller–Sutter, promised at the time that “freedom of expression remains guaranteed” under the recently-passed law.
She also suggested that “anyone who remains respectful need have no fear of being convicted.”
The Swiss People’s Party, the largest coalition in the nation’s parliament, opposed the legal change, worrying that it could be used as “a pretext for handing down politically motivated verdicts and silencing unwelcome opinions and voices.”
