This Monday, the Lausanne court handed down a judgment for the defamation, discrimination, and incitement to hatred offences committed by French-Swiss polemicist Alain Bonnet, also known by his pen name Alain Soral.
In addition to doing time in jail, he was also required to pay thousands of Swiss francs worth of fines and legal fees.
In a Facebook video from two years ago, Soral attacked Catherine Macherel, a reporter for the Swiss publications Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures.
According to Swiss public television RTS, he labeled her a "fat lesbian" and claimed Macherel's work as a "queer activist" indicated that she was "unhinged."
Following the court's judgment, campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights hailed the verdict.
In a statement, Murial Waeger, co-director of the lesbian activist organization LOS, said that the court's ruling was a significant development for the rights and justice of LGBTQI persons in Switzerland.
Alain Soral's conviction sends a powerful message that homophobic hatred is intolerable in our society.
The defense attorney for Soral, Pascal Junod, condemned the conviction for a "crime of opinion" and claimed that the case was intended to determine whether or not someone had "sinned against the dogmas of single thought."
According to the attorney's letter, Soral will appeal to the Swiss Federal Court and, "if necessary," to the European Court of Human Rights.