You’re not singing any more! Chabloz convicted of three charges over anti-Semitic songs
Blogger who penned song calling Auschwitz a “theme park” appeared in court following prosecution by the Campaign Against Antisemitism
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
The singer and musician Alison Chabloz has been found guilty of sending, or cause to be sent, grossly offensive material on the internet.
Giving his ruling at Westminster Magistrates on Friday morning, District Judge John Zani said he was “entirely satisfied, beyond reasonable doubt”, that not only had Chabloz, 53, sent the material complained of, but that she had intended to insult those at whom it was aimed.
Chabloz, from Glossop in Derbyshire, had written three songs which denied the Holocaust and which claimed that Jews were in a conspiracy to take over the world.
She pleaded not guilty to five charges — including one said to have been committed while she was on bail for the other four counts. The charges were that she had sent “by a public communications network an offensive, indecent or menacing message or material”. This is in contravention of Section 127 of the 2003 Communications Act.
Chabloz had performed two of the songs at a gathering of the far-right London Forum in September 2016, and uploaded them subsequently to YouTube. The third song was uploaded to YouTube in September 2017.
The songs were played in court and Chabloz was repeatedly asked in her earlier appearances what she meant by the lyrics. But she insisted that her lyrics were a comic take on “the so-called Holocaust” , which she said had been “used to sustain the criminal state of Israel.” One of those song’s lyrics also referred to Auschwitz as being a “theme park”.
Judge Zani’s ruling was greeted with shouts of “Shame” from Chabloz’s supporters in the public gallery. Sentencing was delayed pending reports from a probation officer, on hand in court; Judge Zani wanted particularly to know whether the defendant was ready to express any remorse for her actions.
It is this court’s opinion that certain historical evens affecting members of the Jewish community as well as comments made of certain selected Jewish individuals (the defendant has here focused on Elie Wisel, Otto Frank and Irene Zisblatt) have been deliberately portrayed in a way that members of an open and multi-cultural society would find particularly insulting, upsetting and disrespectful.
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