Far-right leader Le Pen fined for saying gas chambers were ‘a detail of history’

Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen has been fined 30,000 euros ($34,000) for calling the Nazi gas chambers a “detail” of history. The 87-year-old was handed the punishment by a court in Paris after being convicted of contesting crimes against humanity. The former Front National leader, who was expelled from the party he founded by his own daughter over his extreme beliefs, was said to have told a journalist: “It is not a million deaths, it is the gas chambers. I’m talking about specific things. I have not talked about the number of dead. I spoke of a system. I said it was a detail of the history of warfare.”

I thought millions of French people had demonstrated for freedom of opinion.

Jean-Marie Le Pen on hearing he was going to be prosecuted

French prosecutors opened an investigation after he made the remarks in a TV and radio interview in April last year. The country has strict laws against Holocaust denial. He was convicted of the same charge in 2012 after saying France’s Nazi occupation had been “not particularly inhumane”. Two years later, Le Pen also said that Ebola could be a solution to Europe’s “immigration problem”.

jean le pen