Swiss court upholds conviction over alleged Nazi salute

GENEVA – Switzerland’s Supreme Court has upheld the conviction for racial discrimination of a man who posed outside a Geneva synagogue doing an alleged Nazi salute.

A text of the court’s July decision, made public Thursday, rejected the appeal by the unidentified defendant of a Geneva court verdict handing him a suspended prison sentence and thousands of Swiss francs (dollars) in fines.

Photos posted on the internet of the December 2013 incident showed the man dressed in black with a scarf covering his face alongside two other men, one in Swiss Army fatigues. They posed in a stiff-armed gesture popularized by controversial French comedian Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala.

The lower court ruled the gesture can constitute an anti-Semitic act. The others didn’t appeal their convictions.