Le Pen found guilty of Holocaust denial

By Henry Samuel in Paris
Last Updated: 8:16pm GMT 08/02/2008

Disgraced French far-Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was given a three-month suspended sentence on Friday for calling the Nazi occupation of France "not particularly inhuman".

The 79-year-old founder of the National Front party, not present for the verdict in a Paris court, was found guilty of denying a crime against humanity and complicity in condoning war crimes, both violations of France's Holocaust denial legislation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2008/02/08/wlepen108.jpg
Jean-Marie Le Pen with his daughter, Marine Le Pen

Mr Le Pen was also fined 10,000 euros. His lawyer said he would appeal against the sentence, which was below the five months called for by the prosecution.

The charges relate to comments Mr Le Pen made in an interview with far-Right Rivarol magazine in 2005.

The court said Mr Le Pen had sought to "instill doubt" about Nazi persecution of Resistance members and Jews and their deportation.

It also ruled that he had "re-written history" to present the Gestapo in a favourable light, while making no mention of its crimes when referring to a 1944 massacre in the town of Villeneuve d'Ascq.

"The court reproaches my client for not talking about certain episodes. That is impossible to defend," Mr Le Pen's lawyer, Walleyrand de Saint Juste, told The Daily Telegraph.

The veteran leader has been convicted of several other controversial outbursts, but anti-racism organisation MRAP praised the "very heavy" sentence, saying it was very rare to convict someone via the press.

A journalist at Rivarol and the newspaper's head received fines. All three were ordered to pay a symbolic euro to the Sons and Daughters of French Jews association.

The verdict comes as the National Front, which Mr Le Pen will lead for another three years, is facing political and final meltdown.

After coming close to winning the presidency in 2002, when he came a surprise second to Jacques Chirac, Mr Le Pen suffered a drubbing last year, when a large chunk of National Front voters jumped ship to support Nicolas Sarkozy.

They were swayed by the current president's tough stance on law and order, immigration and the need to defend French "national identity".

With a massive drop in state subsidies, the National Front has been forced to sell its long-standing headquarters, known as Le Paquebot (the steamship) on the southwestern outskirts of Paris.

A spokesman said that it would likely finalise a sale next month for the property valued at around 20 million euros, but that the party had "balanced its books".

The National Front is facing a new drubbing in next month's municipal elections, with only Mr Le Pen's daughter and likely political heir, Marine, in with a chance of becoming mayor in the depressed northern town of Hénin-Beaumont.

However, a recent poll last month showed that National Front voters are turning away from Mr Sarkozy in droves.

Last May, 88 per cent supported him for his "anti-establishment" popularism.

That figure has fallen to 43 per cent, with many appalled at his glitzy style and support of "the powerful against the poor", according to one pollster.

Miss Le Pen warned that waning support for Mr Sarkozy would not automatically help her party, but that she hoped that municipal elections would be a "first step" in rebuilding the decimated party.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/08/wlepen108.xml

Poor Monsieur Le Pen, he is too good for this poor excuse of a country.

The french had 34 years to vote for this man and what did they do? They voted for jews and socio-communists, good job niggers...

But soon the french will start to feel the sour taste of their own medicine, just like the brits not so long ago...

France can rot.

YouTube - Funny Sarkozy Le Pen (English title version)

YouTube - The Last Days of Europe

Somehow the Jews can figure out who is Jewish, but they mock the French figuring out who is French. The answer to Sarkozy's "There is always some one trying to say your blood is not pure enough" is "And there is always a Jew trying to say blood doesn't matter, except for Jewish blood."

Go back to St. Cloud. Go Back to Israel. One of these comments is funny and one is a hate crime.

YouTube - Israël attaquera t'il l'Iran cette année ?

YouTube - Union Patriotique: Megret - Le Pen

The Socialist and Green parties of the European Parliament proposed a rule change on Tuesday to prevent Jean-Marie Le Pen, a convicted Holocaust denier, from serving as the chair for the parliament’s opening session in July. The European Parliament is the legislative body of the EU.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who is 80 years old, is expected to be reelected to the parliament as part of France’s National Front party. As the oldest member of the parliament, Le Pen will then serve as the chair of the inaugural session until a new president is elected.

Le Pen has been accused of being anti-Semitic and has been convicted by several courts for Holocaust denial. He has said several times that the Holocaust is “just a detail in the history of World War II,” which a Munich court said “minimizes the Holocaust, which caused the death of six million Jews.” The German court went on to convict and fine Le Pen. A French court also fined Le Pen 183,200 euros for denying the Holocaust.

German Member of Parliament Martin Schulz, from the Socialist party, proposed a rule change by which the youngest Member of Parliament would chair the session instead of the oldest. “I am concerned by the fact that a Holocaust denier could preside over the opening session of the European Parliament,” he said.

On the other hand, Green party member Daniel Cohn-Bendit, who also supported the initiative, emphasized that the rule change had another purpose. “We would like to see the youngest deputy open the session not because of Le Pen, but because it’s a sign of the future," he explained.

Although the rule change has supporters, it will not pass easily. All presidents of parliamentary groups in the EU chamber must agree in order to approve the motion. British parliament member Graham Watson of the Liberal party has already said he opposes the change. “There is no reason we should treat Mr. Le Pen differently from others,” he claimed, “even if we hate his politics.”

Le Pen himself is rather irate about the possibility he won’t serve as the session chair. “I think I still scare people,” he told reporters, “I’m still demonized.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130610

Le Pen Convicted for WWII Remarks
http://www.vnnforum.com/showthread.php?t=139003
http://theneworder.org/news/2012/02/former-french-right-leader-convicted-for-wwii-remarks/