French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has been convicted for saying that the Nazi gas chambers were “a mere detail” of World War II.
Le Pen, 69, was not present when a court in a suburb of Paris ordered him to pay about $50,000 to finance publication of the judgment in 16 newspapers. He was also ordered to pay symbolic amounts to 11 different human-rights and anti- racist organizations.
The charges stem from remarks Le Pen made in an address in the German city of Munich on Dec. 5. “When you pick up a 1,000-page book on World War II, concentration camps take up two pages and gas chambers 10 to 15 lines — in other words, a detail,” he said.
Le Pen, who denies that he is anti-Semitic, made the remarks while sharing a platform with Franz Schoenhuber, a former Waffen-SS officer and president of Germany’s far-right Republican Party, who has just published a book in praise of Le Pen.
The charges against Le Pen, leader of the National Front Party, were brought under a 1990 French law that forbids the denial of crimes against humanity.
Similar remarks by Le Pen to French radio and TV interviewers in 1987 elicited strong public criticism and a fine of about $1.5 million.
A recent opinion poll indicated that the anti-immigration National Front Party would win the support of 16 percent of French voters in next March’s regional elections, which would be the highest percentage the party has received.
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.
