Le Pen gets suspended sentence(France)

[madkins]

Le Pen's remarks were made in the
magazine Rivarol in January 2005.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7234978.stm


BBC.-Europe

French far-right leader sentenced

February 8, 2008

French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen has been given a three-month suspended jail term for playing down the Nazi occupation of France.

Le Pen, who was also fined 10,000 euros (Ô�Å¡£7,400), described the occupation as "not especially inhumane".

Le Pen, 79, is the leader of the French far-right party, the National Front.

He reached a surprise second-place finish in the 2002 French presidential election, after beating the socialist candidate in the first round.

Le Pen's remarks were made in an interview with the far-right magazine Rivarol in January 2005.

Elsewhere in the article he described the 1944 massacre of 86 people in the town of Villeneve d'Ascq as the actions of a junior officer "mad with rage", and praised the Gestapo for its role in the incident.

The French court ruled that Le Pen had denied a crime against humanity and had been complicit in condoning war crimes.

This is not the first time that Le Pen has faced legal sanctions for making controversial comments about the actions of the Nazis.

In 1987 he was fined for describing the Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history".

Skara Brae,

madkins

 

[Rasp]

Daughter condemns Le Pen's Nazi remark

The daughter and political heir of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the French far-Right leader, turned on her father yesterday after he repeated his claim that the Nazi gas chambers were a "detail of history".

Mr Le Pen, 79, already convicted for making a similar claim, faces renewed legal action after repeating his comments in a magazine interview.

"I said the gas chambers were a detail of the history of World War Two: that, to me, seems so obvious," he told Bretons magazine.

When the interviewer stated that the Nazis "deported people to camps simply to kill them", Mr Le Pen replied: "But that is what you believe. I don't feel obliged to adhere to that view."

The latest comment was immediately condemned by his daughter, Marine, the National Front's vice-president, who is tipped to replace him when his mandate ends in three years.

Louis Alliot, the party's secretary general, also criticised Mr Le Pen in a rare show of dissent against the autocratic leader.

In an allusion to the need to change the old guard, he said that "everything must be done to modernise the party apparatus and make its actions more efficient".

ÃԠ’ÅԚ¾ Mr Le Pen is selling his 1992 bullet-proof Peugeot 605 on the online auction site eBay as part of an attempt to save his party from financial ruin.