I was just reading this article about French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. The article states that he has been “convicted several times of anti-Semitism.”
What does this mean? I assume you can’t be legally convicted just for holding a belief, so do you have to manifest the anti-Semitism with some action? What court convicted him, and under what circumstances? Is this anything like the laws against holocaust denial I have read about in Europe?
IANAFL but pretty much, yes. He was convicted of “complicité d’apologie de crime de guerre” and “complicité de contestation de crime contre l’humanité”. That comes out as “complicity of apology of war crimes” and “complicity of contestation of crimes against humanity”.
The relevent laws are article 9 of “loi du 13 juillet 1990” for contestation of war crimes, and “loi du 29 juillet 1881”, article 24, for apology of war crimes.
Essentially, under French freedom of speech laws, it is illegal to publicly praise war crimes, as well as publicly negate the existence of crimes against humanity defined in the London Agreement of August 8th 1945. If you read French, you can consult the exact texts of these laws here:
“loi du 29 juillet 1881”
http://www.foruminternet.org/documents/lois/lire.phtml?id=6
“loi du 13 juillet 1990”
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=JUSX9010223L
*Note that article 9 of the second, more recent law, simply adds a new article to the older law, which is the one that governs freedom of press.