A Paris court has acquitted Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme right-wing National Front, of charges of racial defamation brought against him for a newspaper interview he gave in 1989.
The Paris Court of Justice ruled last Friday that the charges against Le Pen had been inconsistent and that his remarks were “not defamatory.”
However, the judge acknowledged that Le Pen’s declaration that “Freemasonry and international Judaism are opposed to the national interests of France” was “particularly offensive to international Jewish organizations.”
The court ruled that Le Pen’s statement was “the reflection of a personal political conviction. It is not for this court to decide its accuracy.”
The interview appeared in the French daily Present, a publication close to Le Pen’s party. The charges against Le Pen were leveled by the French Ministry of Justice, which was joined by four anti-racist and human rights organizations.
This lawsuit against Le Pen followed two others filed against him for offensive remarks he made against Jews. In March, he was fined twice for statements in which he slurred victims of the Holocaust.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
