truth is 'verboten'
Former French right leader convicted for WWII remarks
IRREPRESSIBLE — Former leader of France's
National Front (FN) is shown here after testing the outer
limits of free speech in the French Republic. He didn't have to go
far. His daughter, FN presidential candidate Marine (right) is
currently in third place in public opinion polls.
PARIS — An appeals court in Paris upheld a three-month suspended jail sentence against former far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. The punishment, which also included a 10,000 euro ($13,000) fine, was first imposed in 2008 after Le Pen was found guilty of denying a crime against humanity.
Le Pen made the remarks in an interview with a far-right magazine in 2005. He told Rivarol magazine that "in France, at least, the German occupation was not especially inhumane, even if there were a number of excesses — inevitable in a country of 550,000 square kilometers."
Scores court decision as election 'opportunism'
Le Pen said he would appeal the ruling to France's Court of Cassation, the country's court of last resort, and linked Thursday's decision with the French presidential election in April.
"I will make an appeal in cassation against this decision, which I'm not surprised comes during the election period," Le Pen told AFP, accusing the courts of "opportunism".
The far-right leader handed over the reins of his National Front (FN) party to his daughter Marine last year and she is currently in third place in opinion polls, with around 20 percent, ahead of the presidential vote.
Belittled the 'gas chambers'
Le Pen, who founded the FN in 1972, had been convicted of racism or anti-Semitism on a number of previous occasions. In 1987 he described the [so-called] Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history."
In 2002 Le Pen shocked observers by making it through to the second round of France's presidential election.