A Holocaust denier who fled France after he was convicted under anti-Nazi laws has been arrested in a Scottish fishing village.
Vincent Reynouard, 53, was arrested in Anstruther, Fife, on Thursday after a two-year search.
He had been working as a private tutor while living under a false identity in the UK, according to French media reports.
Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990, and Reynouard has been convicted on numerous occasions.
He was given a four-month jail term in November 2020 and a further six-month sentence in January 2021.
Police Scotland said: “He was arrested at an address in the Anstruther area of Fife on a Trade and Co-operation Agreement warrant issued in France.”
General Jean-Philippe Reiland of the OCLCH, the arm of the French gendarmerie that specialises in hate crime and war crimes, said: “Vincent Reynouard was able to be arrested thanks to a huge effort of international co-operation and, in particular, thanks to our British counterparts.
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“Despite the legal difficulties that may exist, the [OCLCH] will not let go of the ideologues who propagate hatred, wherever they are.”
The Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomed the arrest and described Reynouard as a “despicable Holocaust denier who has repeatedly been convicted by French courts”.
The charity said his first Holocaust denial conviction was in 1991 for distributing leaflets denying the existence of gas chambers at concentration camps.
