Specifically, this law against negationism makes it illegal to publicly "deny, play down, justify or approve of the genocide committed by the German National Socialist regime during the Second World War".
[1][2] The negationism bill, drafted by Claude Eerdekens and Yvan Mayeur of the Parti Socialiste, was introduced in the Chamber of Representatives by Eerdekens (PS), Marcel Cheron (Ecolo), Marcel Colla (SP), Yvan Mayeur (PS), Luc Dhoore (CVP), Raymond Langendries (CDH), Louis Michel (MR) and Mieke Vogels (Agalev) on 30 June 1992.
In a decision of 24 June 2003, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) stated that "denying or minimising the Holocaust must be seen as one of the acutest forms of racial slandering and incentives to hatred towards the Jews.
The negation or the revision of historical facts of this type call into question the values which found the fight against racism and anti-semitism and is likely to seriously disturb law and order.
An employee of Vlaams Belang in the European Parliament, who had previous convictions, received eight months in prison with a suspended sentence and a fine of 8,000 euros.
Joeri Van Olmen, local Vlaams Belang chairman in the city of Sint-Niklaas, and three other convicts received a one-year prison sentence with a six-month reprieve and a fine 8,000 euro, half of which was suspended.