Remigijus Žemaitaitis has lost his appeal at a Lithuanian appellate court on his conviction of sowing ethnic discord against Jews and Holocaust trivialization.

Member of parliament Remigijus Žemaitaitis made a series of anti-Semitic statements on facebook and elsewhere several years to launch his party Nemuno Aušra [Nieman River Dawn]. He accused Jews of carrying out a Holocaust against Lithuanians following Soviet occupation of the country, among other things. The appeals court in the latest ruling found Žemaitaitis had engaged in a form of Holocaust trivialization by comparing the Holocaust to Soviet crimes and by using dehumanizing language to describe Jews.

In a separate case earlier Lithuania’s Constitutional Court ruled Žemaitaitis’s statements on facebook and to media violated his oath of office as an MP and constituted a gross violation of the Lithuanian constitution.

The appeals court reiterated the earlier verdict against the Lithuanian MP and increased the fine levied against him from 5,000 to 10,000 euros.