The president of the Lausanne police court (western Switzerland), Malika Turki, considered that Mr. Soral's remarks amounted to defamation but not to incitement to hatred against the homosexual community.

He was sentenced to pay 1,500 Swiss francs (about the same amount in euros) in fines.

He must pay 500 Swiss francs to the journalist for moral damages and pay her legal fees, up to 7,000 Swiss francs.

Real name Alain Bonnet, Mr. Soral, who has lived in Lausanne since October 2019, can appeal the decision rendered on Friday.

But he said to himself, after the verdict, somewhat relieved.

"The judgment is quite measured," he told reporters, stressing that "homophobia was not retained".

"I did not expect total relaxation," he added.

Journalist Cathy Macherel, of the daily Tribune de Genève, filed a complaint after the broadcast of Mr. Soral's video.

At the end of the trial, the journalist said she was "satisfied" with the judgment because the defamation against her was recognized.

But she said she regretted that the incitement to hatred was not retained "because Mr. Soral targets the communities".

Alain Soral was sentenced in early April to three months in prison by criminal order by the Attorney General of the canton of Vaud (western Switzerland) Eric Cottier for "defamation, discrimination and incitement to hatred", prosecutors in Switzerland having the power to impose sentences of up to six months in prison.

The essayist, 64, had appealed against this sanction and had to go before a judge on Wednesday, during a public hearing.

"Attacks on honour"

His conviction in April followed the broadcast of a video in which he attacked the journalist who had devoted an article to him in August 2021.

In this video posted on the website of his association Egalité et Réconciliation, Mr. Soral had called him a "big militant lesbian" and "queer", a term he wants to be synonymous with "misaligned".

The far-right Franco-Swiss essayist Alain Soral (2nd d) and his lawyer Pascal Junod (2nd g) arrive at the court in Lausanne, on December 14, 2022 in Switzerland © Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

The president of the court considered Friday that it is not obvious to see in these remarks "a state of contempt towards the homosexual community" or a "fierce hatred towards homosexuals", and considered that it was rather " targeted attack on a person".

"The juxtaposition of the terms fat lesbian, activist, queer, taken as a whole, makes Catherine Macherel appear as a despicable person. The remarks are therefore detrimental to honor", she assured.

During his trial on Wednesday, Mr. Soral claimed to have "no anti-homosexual hatred" and called his video a "right of reply", while acknowledging that his tone was "too virulent".

In April, however, the Attorney General considered that "the comments made by the defendant" against Ms. Macherel "are deeply homophobic and incite discrimination because of the complainant's sexual orientation and, more generally, homosexual people".

The criminalization of homophobia is recent in Switzerland, ratified at the beginning of 2020 by a popular vote.

This new provision broadens existing legislation in the fight against discrimination and incitement to racial or religious hatred, by extending it to sexual orientation.

Alain Soral has already been convicted twenty times in France, largely for offenses of incitement to hatred, defamation and public insult.

© 2022 AFP