Fri, March 3, 2023
Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, seen here at the Montreal courthouse last year, is seeking to appeal his guilty verdict. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press - image credit)
A Montreal neo-Nazi who was found guilty of wilfully promoting hatred is seeking to appeal the verdict.
Gabriel Sohier-Chaput, 36, authored articles in a far-right publication under the pseudonym "Charles Zeiger." He was found guilty in the Court of Quebec on Jan. 23.
The case hinged on a single article written in 2017 for a far-right online publication, the Daily Stormer, which Sohier-Chaput claimed was satire.
Using antisemitic memes and editorial comments, the article entitled "Canada: Nazis Trigger Jews By Putting Up Posters On Ch--k Church," celebrated neo-Nazi posters pasted on a bus stop in British Columbia.
It also mocked a Holocaust survivor who had been interviewed about the incident, calling him an "oven-dodger," and called for "non-stop Nazism, everywhere, until the very streets are flooded with the tears of our enemies."
Sohier-Chaput's lawyer submitted his request for an appeal last week.
His lawyer wrote in the request that Judge Manlio Del Negro created an appearance of partiality in the courtroom.
The lawyer also claims the judge committed errors of fact and law in his analysis of Sohier-Chaput's credibility when he compared the accused to Machiavelli and implied that he had rallied his readers around the virus hatred. The lawyer said the judge didn't provide proof supporting that.
When Sohier-Chaput was found guilty, the judge described him as "extremely dangerous to the public" and ordered he be handcuffed immediately.
Sohier-Chaput is scheduled to be sentenced on May 11.
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