Nanterre, France - The far-right political leader, Jean Marie Le Pen, was found guilty yesterday of violating French anti-racism laws for repeating his view that gas chambers were "a mere detail" of the second World War. Le Pen, the firebrand president of France's National Front party, was ordered by a court in the Paris suburb of Nanterre to pay £35,000 (about $50,000) to finance the publication of the ruling in six daily newspapers and six weekly publications.
He was also fined a symbolic one franc (about 12p) in damages and ordered to pay legal costs for the 13 human rights groups that had filed civil lawsuits against him for the remark, made in Munich on December 5th.