France - France fines black comic for antisemitism

$Dieudonne M\'bala M\'bala$

Dieudonne M\'bala M\'bala

French judges ordered a far-right black comedian to pay 20,000 euros (30,000 dollars) Tuesday over an anti-Semitic stunt during a stage show in which he invited a notorious Holocaust denier onto stage.

The Paris court fined Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a 43-year-old French stand up, 10,000 euros for his "public antisemitic insults" and told him to pay a further 10,000 in damages and legal fees to organisations that sued him.

He was prosecuted after he invited Robert Faurisson, an academic who has been convicted of Holocaust denial, onto stage during a Paris comedy show to receive a satirical award from an actor dressed as a Jewish deportee.

The comic admitted at the hearing that the show had been a "comedy bomb attack" but defended his right to free expression. Anti-racism and Jewish defence organisations welcomed the verdict.

Source: AFP

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