THE prankster convicted of hate crimes after releasing a viral video in which he trains his dog to Sieg Heil and react to the phrase "gas the Jews" has accused a sheriff of a "huge attack" on his character.
Mark Meechan is considering an appeal but has been told it could cost £50,000 to go through with it after being found guilty at Airdrie Sheriff Court of communicating a video which was deemed to be "grossly offensive".
After the verdict, the 30-year-old appeared on the controversial right-wing US media show Info Wars – hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones – alongside English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson.
Mr Jones told him that he had been "defamed" and that the M8 Yer Dugs A Nazi video featuring Meechan's pug Buddha which has been viewed more than three million times was "better than John Cleese and Charlie Chaplin", adding: "His name is Mark Meechan and he isn't getting a show on the BBC, baby, he is going to prison. It is pure tyranny."
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Jewish human rights organisation the Simon Wiesenthal Center, based in Los Angeles, said that Meechan should be made to meet Holocaust survivors and WWII heroes rather than sentenced to jail.
In a landmark ruling on Tuesday, Sheriff Derek O'Carroll found Meechan guilty of a charge under the Communications Act of posting a video which was “anti-Semitic and racist in nature” and was "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".He is due to be sentenced next month.
Alex Jones discusses Meechan's case on Info Wars
As the case ignited a global freedom of speech debate, Meechan said that some of what the judge said was "extremely troubling".
"He turned around and said he completely rejects the notion that this video was made as a joke," he said on the Alex Jones show.
"And he says that I made the video to be purposefully anti-Semitic and the reason I made the video was to spread anti-Semitic hatred and encourage anti-Semitic hatred and what worries me is i know my intentions and that was to annoy my girlfriend. That is the reality of the situation.
"What the judge has done is completely rejected that and instead labelled me an anti-Semite.
"It's a huge attack on my character because I don't want to be known as that, because I know in my heart what I am. I know what is in my head.
"I am kind of having it dictated to me who I am."
Mr Meechan said on Info Wars that he had a "very large fan base in Israel, all of them practising Jews" who had written to the director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities Ephraim Borowski saying he should not go to jail.
"They are saying ... why are you wasting your time on this, this clearly is not anti-Semitism even though they didn't like the joke."
During his interview, Mr Jones told Meechan: "They've defamed you. These bullies need to pay for what they are doing, trying to turn the UK into the very same anti-free speech prison Europe is under the unelected dictatorship of... [Jean-Claude] Juncker.
He added: "It's total authoritarianism. They are the ones bringing in the Hitler lovers, they are the ones bringing in the Islamists, they are the ones crushing the west, they are the globalists, they are the plague. Hitler wanted to get rid of free speech and Christianity, they are the enemy, they are Hitler."
READ MORE: Scots 'Nazi dog' row: "What is funny about talking about killing an entire race"
In commentating on Meechan's situation he said: "This is the vicious authoritarian left. When they get full power, they will shoot you in the back of the head and shovel you into graves. That's where this train ends. This is what is coming to the US, I would say the UK is two years behind Europe.
Alex Jones discusses Meechan's case on Info Wars
"This is deadly, deadly serious. It doesn't matter whether your ancestors were bombed by the Nazis or fought the Nazis, [this] is projected by people who actually are the cultural and spiritual children of the Nazis."
After Mr Jones said it was "like living in North Korea" and asking Meechan what it was like to deal with, he compared what happened to him with "classic far-left tactics".
"I am working part time from friends and the majority of my income comes from YouTube. I used to be a bouncer. I can't do that any more. Employment wise I have had every door closed.
READ MORE: Video: Comedy stars back Scots 'Nazi dog' film maker found guilty of hate crime
"If they can't get you for your speech under the law, they will do things called social consequences where they get the press to smear you, try and get your employers to fire you and if none of that works what they usually do is turn up with masks on and beat you up and try and shout down your talks and de-platform you. It's classic far-left tactics, that's what it is."
Rabbi Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center pointed out that had Meechan posted the video from the US there would have been not legal action taken.
He said: “But other democracies set different red lines on hate speech that have to be respected. Speech may be free, but there are consequences for one’s actions.”
He compared to other online hate "this incident would not register as an offense worthy of jail time".
He added: "But among those who continue to make this video go viral are neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers who gleefully grab another opportunity to demean and denigrate the victims of the Holocaust.
"If I were the judge, I would sentence the young man to meet with aging Holocaust survivors and UK World War II war heroes to learn why the Nazi Seig should never be a laughing matter.”
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