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| French far-right leader sentenced | French far-right leader sentenced |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen has been given a three-month suspended jail term for playing down the Nazi occupation of France. | |
| Le Pen, who was also fined 10,000 euros (£7,400), described the occupation as "not especially inhumane". | |
| Le Pen, 79, is the leader of the French far-right party, the National Front. | |
| He reached a surprise second-place finish in the 2002 French presidential election, after beating the socialist candidate in the first round. | |
| Le Pen's remarks were made in an interview with the far-right magazine Rivarol in January 2005. | |
| Elsewhere in the article he described the 1944 massacre of 86 people in the town of Villeneve d'Ascq as the actions of a junior officer "mad with rage", and praised the Gestapo for its role in the incident. | |
| The French court ruled that Le Pen had denied a crime against humanity and had been complicit in condoning war crimes. | |
| This is not the first time that Le Pen has faced legal sanctions for making controversial comments about the actions of the Nazis. | |
| In 1987 he was fined for describing the Nazi gas chambers as a "detail of history". |