Former far-right leader Le Pen fined for gas chambers comment
The former president of the far-right National Front party in France, Jean-Marie Le Pen was ordered on Wednesday to pay a 30,000 euro fine for describing the gas chambers as a "detail" in the history of the Second War World.
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On Wednesday a court in Paris found Le Pen, 87, guilty of contesting crimes against humanity and rejected his plea for parliamentary immunity.
Judges ordered the verdict to be published in three newspapers and said Le Pen must also pay 10,001 euros in damages to three charities which had brought forward the case.
Le Pen, who has been succeeded by his daughter Marine as FN leader, first made the comments about the gas chambers in 1987. He repeated them in 1997 in Germany and then in 2008 and 2009 in the European Parliament.
The comments sparked a row with his daughter, Marine Le Pen, who has tried to move the party away from its anti-Semitic and racist image.
She expelled her father from the party he co-founded amid their feud.
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