“Liberte” — Not Much of That in France: British Satirical Chanteuse Banned for 40 Years From France for Questioning the New Religion of Holocaust
Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz barred from entering France for 40 years
The antisemitic performer was stopped at St Pancras station on Monday
A self-described “Holocaust revisionist” has reportedly received a 40-year ban from entering France after attempting to board a Eurostar train to Paris on Monday.
Alison Chabloz, who was convicted last year of two counts of causing obscene material to be sent and one of sending obscene material, used her account on Gab, a social media network popular among the far-right, to say she had been “banned from entering France until 2059”.
Chabloz was given a suspended prison sentence of 20 weeks last June for her “grossly offensive” antisemitic songs, including material mocking Holocaust victims and claims about Jews controlling the world. She was also banned from posting on social media for 12 months.
At an appeal hearing in February at Southwark Crown Court, the convictions were upheld, with the judge describing Chabloz as “a Holocaust denier…manifestly antisemitic and obsessed with what she perceives to be the wrongdoing of Jews”.
In a post to controversial social media network Gab, Chabloz wrote that she had been “questioned first by gendarmes and then Met CTU [Counter Terrorism Unit] under Sec 7 at St Pancras.”
Chabloz was presumably attempting to refer to Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which gives police, immigration and customs officers the right to stop, search and hold individuals at ports, airports and international train stations, if subjects are suspected of involvement in terrorism or any other criminal activity.
Hope Not Hate, the anti-racist advocacy group, tweeted the news to its 89,000 Twitter followers on Monday evening, saying Chabloz “got a surprise trying to get into France this morning.”
Comments from respondents included: “maybe she can write a song about it that nobody wants to hear”, “fantastic news” and “vive la France.”
Holocaust denial is illegal in France. In April, a far-right activist, Alain Soral, was sentenced to a year in prison by a Parisian criminal court for Holocaust denial.