France - Le Pen's deputy convicted of questioning Holocaust

A French court convicted a far-right leader and member of the European Parliament on Thursday and fined him for questioning the existence of Nazi gas chambers.

The court convicted Bruno Gollnisch, the No. 2 in France's National Front party led by Jean-Marie LePen , of "Disputing a crime against humanity," Gave him a three-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay a USD 6,450 fine, court officials said.

The court also ordered him to pay USD 71,200 in damages to the plaintiffs, which included the group SOS Racism, and ordered all the newspapers that ran Gollnisch's comments to publish the verdict.

At an October 2004 news conference, Gollnisch questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers in the Holocaust and suggested that the number of Jews killed during World War II might have been exaggerated. Gollnisch's comments sparked uproar among Jewish and anti-racism groups, and he was suspended by Jean Moulin University in Lyon, where he taught law and Japanese, for five years over the remarks.

Source: www.ynetnews.com

Date: 17.1.2006

Photo: AP

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