A former Romanian intelligence officer was sentenced to one year and one month in prison for Holocaust denial in the first conviction under a 2002 law, a court in Bucharest confirms.
Vasile Zarnescu, 74, who worked for eleven years for Romania’s Intelligence Service (SRI), was convicted by a court in Bucharest for writing several online articles in which he described the Holocaust as a “fraud.”
Vasile Zarnescu in 2014 (video screenshot)
In 2016, he also published a book titled: “The Holocaust, A Diabolical Hoax.”
Zarnescu says he will appeal the sentence.
“It’s the first conviction for denying the Holocaust and it’s a strong message from the justice system, one that shows important progress,” Alexandru Muraru, the government’s special representative for fighting anti-Semitism and xenophobia, says.
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