Dutch court convicts man who projected antisemitic message on museum
Court Alerts
A court in Amsterdam sentenced a Polish-Canadian national to two months in prison on Thursday for projecting a message alluding to an antisemitic conspiracy theory onto the Anne Frank House museum.
Robert Wilson was charged with insulting a group and inciting discrimination for using a laser projector in February to display the words “Ann (sic) Frank invented the ballpoint pen” on the side of the canal house where the Jewish teenager hid with her family during the Holocaust.
The text refers to a debunked claim that Frank’s famed diary is a forgery.
“Given the great symbolic significance of Anne Frank’s diary for the commemoration of the persecution of the Jews, this statement can be regarded as a form of Holocaust denial,” the court wrote in its decision.
Having already spent more than two months in pre-trial detention, Wilson has already served his sentence. He was not in the courtroom for the verdict.
The judges ruled that Wilson had projected the scrolling text from a van parked across the canal from the building in Amsterdam, which now houses the Anne Frank Museum. A recording of the stunt was posted on an antisemitic Telegram channel, but the court found there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of distributing the images.
Wilson denied the charges, claiming he was in Amsterdam for a weekend getaway with his girlfriend and daughter. He told judges during a hearing two weeks ago that he wasn’t even aware of where the Anne Frank House was.
Prosecutors said Wilson was a prominent member of the neo-Nazi Goyim Defense League. He is facing charges of assault and shouting homophobic slurs at a neighbor while he was living in the United States. Poland is also investigating Wilson over an incident in which he allegedly stood in front of the Auschwitz concentration camp holding a sign with antisemitic slogans.
Related listings
-
A federal appeals court made medication abortions harder to get in Guam
Court Alerts 08/07/2023People seeking medication abortions on the U.S. Territory of Guam must first have an in-person consultation with a doctor, a federal appeals court says, even though the nearest physician willing to prescribe the medication is 3,800 miles (6,100 kilom...
-
Bankruptcy Filings Rise 10%, and Courts Feel the Pinch
Court Alerts 08/02/2023Personal and business bankruptcy filings rose 10 percent in the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2023, compared with the previous year. Bankruptcy totals are reported four times annually by the U.S. government.According to statistics release...
-
Trump’s Lawyers Meet With Prosecutors as Election Interference Charges Loom
Court Alerts 07/29/2023Lawyers for Donald Trump were meeting Thursday with members of special counsel Jack Smith’s team as a potential indictment loomed over the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to a person fami...
Is Now the Time to Really Call a Special Education Lawyer?
IDEA, FAPE, CHILD FIND and IEPs: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees all children with disabilities to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). FAPE starts with a school’s responsibility to identify that a child has a disability (Child Find) and create an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to suit the needs of the child.
Forte Law Group is one of only a very few law firms within the state of Connecticut that is dedicated to exclusively representing families and children with special needs.
Parents need to be persistent, dedicated and above all else aware of the many services and accommodations that their child is entitled to under the law. As early as this point within your child’s special education, many parents will often find themselves in the situation asking, “is now the time to really call a special education lawyer?” Here are a few things to consider when asking yourself that question.