Fine for Jean-Marie Le Pen over gas chamber remarks

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder and former head of France’s far-right National Front party, has been convicted of denying crimes against humanity for repeating that the Nazi gas chambers are a “detail” of Second World War history.

A Paris court convicted then sentenced Le Pen on Wednesday to a 30,000 euro (£25,000) fine plus paying damages to three associations in the case.

Le Pen, 87, was convicted of the same offence in 2012 for claiming the Nazi occupation of France was not “particularly inhumane”.

Decades ago, Le Pen was convicted for saying the gas chambers were “a detail of the history of the Second World War.” He repeated the remark last year.

Le Pen was removed from the party’s ruling hierarchy by president Marine Le Pen, his daughter.