Nanterre / France (RNC Agency) 26.01.1998

On Friday a French court found Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the extreme right, guilty of dismissive remarks made about the Holocaust during a speech given in Munich. The court in Nanterre, near Paris, ordered that the leader of the National Front (FN) pay compensation ranging between 1 and 5000 francs to eleven separate organizations. At a press conference in Munich at the start of December, Le Pen described the gas chambers as a detail in the history of the second world war. With this as evidence, a case w as brought against him for denial of crimes against humanity.

Le Pen has also to publish the judgement against him in ten newspapers, and pay 300,000 francs bail. Le Pens remarks were made at a presentation occasioned by the publication of a book by Franz Schnhuber, the one-time leader of Germanys right-wing extremis ts, the Republikaner. In France, his comments led to protests from Jewish and anti-racist organizations. These referred to Le Pens previous conviction for having made the same comments in 1991. It was maintained at the time that such remarks are unaccepta b le as they play down the hounding and suffering of deportees, in particular Jews, but also of Sinti and Roma.