Roeland Raes

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Roeland Raes (Ghent, 4 September 1934) is a Belgian politician, a former senator for and vice president of the political party 'Vlaams Blok'. Raes studied law at the University of Ghent.

He became politically active in 1955, when he became member of the Volksunie. He was senator for Vlaams Blok from 1995 until 2002. At the moment he is Vlaams Belang chapter leader of Lovendegem, member of the Vlaams Belang party board of the district Gent-Eeklo and (as a former senator) member of the national party council of the Vlaams Belang. He works at the party headquarters in Brussels as an archivarian.

Critics accuse Raes of Holocaust denial and being an antisemite.^[1]

He is a prominent member of Voorpost.

[edit] Revisionism trial

Roeland Raes stepped down as senator and party vice president after accusations of Nazi sympathies.^[2] He was charged with negationism in accordance with the Belgian Negationism Law after saying on Dutch television : "I doubt the systematism of the extermination of the Jews and I also doubt the number of deaths, [...] and also whether camps such as Auschwitz were all meant to be extermination camps"^[3] During the interview, Raes however had no doubts about the systematic persecution and deportation of Jews by the nazis.

The original complaint goes back to 2001. Meanwhile the mother video tape with the full interview, which could have shed light on the context, got lost, so the evidence that can be used in the trial is limited to the parts of the interview that have been broadcast.

Early 2006, at the Public Prosecutor’s request and after a hearing in chambers, the charges were dropped, but after an appeal by the Forum of Jewish Organisations, the case was resumed.

[edit] References

1. ^ Ben-Moshe, Danny, "The State of Holocaust Negation" (pp. 143–144) in Kwiet and Matthaus (eds), Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust (Praeger Series on Jewish and Israeli Studies, pp. 139–176. Westport: Praeger, 2004. ISBN 0-275-97466-9.
2. ^ 'Belgium's far right party in Holocaust controversy ', the Guardian, Friday March 9, 2001 - (Dutch)Centrum-Leman dient klacht in tegen Raes ("Centre Leman files complaint against Raes"), De Standaard, Friday 16 March 2001
3. ^ (Dutch)Humo, No. 3429, 23 May 2006, pg. 56