Former Belgian far-right lawmaker to be tried for Holocaust denial

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

ISTANBUL (AA) - Belgian former far-right lawmaker Dries Van Langenhove will be tried for denying the Holocaust, the Ghent Chamber of Indictment announced Thursday.

Van Langenhove, who was elected from the Vlaams Belang party, was accused of making racist and anti-Semitic comments in secret chat groups of a far-right youth movement that he founded called Schild & Vrienden.

The messages were uncovered in 2018 by a news program on Belgian public broadcaster, VRT.

Van Langenhove was under a formal investigation in June 2019. He then was released under several restrictions, one that required him to attend a guided tour of the Kazerne Dossin Holocaust Remembrance Center in Belgium -- which was used as a concentration camp during World War II.

He stepped down as an MP in the Federal Chamber earlier this month.