FRANCE: The date for French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen's trial on charges he was complicit in justifying war crimes has been set for after the upcoming presidential elections.
The trial is set for June 7th and 8th, leaving him clear to campaign and run in an expected April first-round vote. If he was convicted before the election he might not have been eligible to take part, though he would have the right to appeal.
Mr Le Pen's success in the first round of the 2002 elections won by Jacques Chirac caused national dismay after he knocked Socialist candidate Lionel Jospin into third place.
The trial centres around a comment Mr Le Pen made last year which angered the conservative government, anti-racism organisations and Jewish groups.
"In France, at least," he was quoted as saying, "the German occupation was not particularly inhumane, although there were some blunders, inevitable in a country of 550,000 sq km." - (Reuters)