A Scottish YouTube star known as Count Dankula could spend a year in prison if he's found guilty of a hate crime. This is after he posted a video which was deemed anti-Semitic and saw him arrested by police.
The 28-year-old Scottish man, Markus Meechan, who’s behind the account, posted the video in April last year in which he portrayed his partner's dog as a neo-Nazi.
In the clip, the guy is heard saying that his girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is, so he thought he could turn it into the least cute thing he could think of, which is a Nazi.
The clip shows the dog, known as Buddha, watching Nazi propaganda, lifting its paw when it hears the phrase Sieg heil, and responding with excitement when asked whether it wants to gas the Jews.
The Scottish man was remanded in custody at the end of last month on suspicion of publishing offensive material online and has since offered an apology for causing offense, claiming the video was simply a prank.
In a video that he posted to his account on Tuesday, Meechan said that the video was a joke to annoy his girlfriend, not to encourage anti-Semitism or encourage hatred toward Jewish people. He’s also emphasized that the trial is happening to dispute that fact.
He also said that people who will be showing up for the trial are trying to insinuate that he’s trying to normalize anti-Semitism and Nazism.
Many Jews have been enraged by the video. The director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities told The Daily Mirror that the Holocaust should not be joked about under any circumstances.
Ephraim Borowski said that to joke on the planned and industrialized murder of six million people solely on the grounds of their ethnicity is outrageous.
Meechan revealed in Tuesday’s video that he’s hopeless at getting a not guilty verdict, saying he had a strong feeling that the verdict had already been decided. He’ll face a maximum of 12 months in prison if he’s found guilty.
Sad that there's no free speech allowed in his country. I watched the video. It's really good satire, not anything near a hate crime. Ridiculous!