May 1999

Le Pen fined for calling Holocaust 'detail of history'


 MUNICH, Germany (AP)  French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was
 convicted of inciting racial hatred for calling the Holocaust a "detail
in history" and ordered to pay a fine, prosecutors said Wednesday.

 A Munich court issued the summary judgment in late May, said Michael Grauel, a
 spokesman for the Bavarian Justice Ministry. The amount of the fine was not
 disclosed, he said.

 The charges stem from a 1997 Munich news conference at which Le Pen
 referred to the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews died, as a "detail
in the history of World War II."

 Le Pen, leader of France's anti-immigrant National Front, maintained the
 statement does not deny the Holocaust happened. But he was convicted of
 inciting racial hatred by trivializing the Holocaust, also a crime in
Germany, Grauel said.

 The National Front advocates sending home France's millions of immigrants
and reserving jobs and welfare for French-born citizens.
It is widely accused of racism and anti-Semitism.

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