Man convicted of hate crime for Nazi dog film accuses trial sheriff of attacking his character
THE film-maker found guilty of hate crimes for releasing a viral video in which he trains his partner’s dog to Sieg Heil and react to the phrase “gas the Jews” has accused a sheriff of attacking his character.
Mark Meechan is considering an appeal – which could cost up to £50,000 – after being found guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court of producing a video deemed to be “grossly offensive”.
After the verdict, the 30-year-old appeared on the controversial right-wing US media show Info Wars – hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones – alongside English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson.
In a landmark ruling on Tuesday, Sheriff Derek O’carroll found Meechan guilty of a charge under the Communications Act of posting a video which was “anti-semitic and racist in nature” and was “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character”. He is due to be sentenced next month.
As the case ignited a global freedom of speech debate, Meechan said that some of what the judge said was “extremely troubling”.
“He turned around and said he completely rejects the notion that this video was made as a joke,” he said.
“What the judge has done is label me an anti-semite. It’s a huge attack on my character because I don’t want to be known as that, because I know in my heart what I am. I know what is in my head.”
Meechan said he had a “very large fan base in Israel, all of them practising Jews” who had written to the director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities Ephraim Borowski, who was among the first to complain about the video, saying he should not go to jail.
In commentating on Meechan’s situation, Alex Jones said: “This is the vicious authoritarian left. When they get full power, they will shoot you in the back of the head and shovel you into graves. That’s where this train ends. This is what is coming to the US, I would say the UK is two years behind Europe.”
Rabbi Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, pointed out that had Meechan posted the video from the US there would not have been legal action taken.
He said: “But other democracies set different red lines on hate speech that have to be respected. Speech may be free, but there are consequences for one’s actions.”
He added: “But among those who continue to make this video go viral are neo-nazis and Holocaust deniers who gleefully grab another opportunity to demean and denigrate the victims of the Holocaust.”