The trial of rightist leader Pierre Poujade on charges of criminal libel for anti-Semitic statements in speech and print ended today in Limoges Criminal Court, which announced that a verdict would be returned on November 7.
The charges were filed by the MRAP, the Movement Against Anti-Semitism and for Peace, and represented the first trial in recent years of a prominent French political personality on such charges. The Jewish War Veterans Organization of France was listed among the plaintiffs. Poujade did not attend the proceedings. He was charged with having made anti-Semitic comments in his weekly, “French Fraternity” and with having slandered the memory of Jewish soldiers who died for France in World War II.
Maurice Schapira, the plaintiffs’ attorney, called Poujade’s statements “a real aggression against the Jewish people in purest Nazi style.” He added that “we do not criticize Poujade’s likes or dislikes but we plead a criminal case.”
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