OUSTED TROLL(S) OF THE MONTH – OCTOBER

The Ousted Troll of the Month is an incident we choose every month to show positive outcomes in the fight against antisemitism in Europe.

Eight people face one-year suspended prison term after the Pest Central District Court found them guilty of defamation via Facebook against Shlomo Koves, rabbi of the Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation.

The defendants libelled the rabbi to be a Jewish terrorist threatening the nation. They produced and shared on Facebook a photo of the rabbi and a made up quote. The text, falsely attributed to him, reported that the Holocaust was invented by Jews to persecute those who would deny it. The image was widely shared by users on Facebook and social media.

As the Action and Protection Foundation (TEV) reports, the judge declared in the verdict that although Rabbi Shlomo Köves can be considered a public figure, there must be a differentiation between various types of public figures. The threshold of tolerance for a politician who regularly appears in the press is different than that of a leader of the church who participates only in certain societal discourse. The court judgment said that naming someone a terrorist threatening the nation is beyond the must-tolerate limit.

After a two-year trial, the judgment of the first instance trial was announced on 15 October 2015 in Budapest. The court found the accused guilty, each of them received one year probation and all of them were ordered to pay the expenses of the proceedings. Of the eight people accused, seven appealed against the decision, while one apologised. Shlomo Köves accepted the apology and, as a civil claimant, dropped his accusation against the defendant.