May 1999 Le Pen fined for calling Holocaust 'detail of history' MUNICH, Germany (AP) French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was convicted of inciting racial hatred for calling the Holocaust a "detail in history" and ordered to pay a fine, prosecutors said Wednesday. A Munich court issued the summary judgment in late May, said Michael Grauel, a spokesman for the Bavarian Justice Ministry. The amount of the fine was not disclosed, he said. The charges stem from a 1997 Munich news conference at which Le Pen referred to the Holocaust, in which 6 million Jews died, as a "detail in the history of World War II." Le Pen, leader of France's anti-immigrant National Front, maintained the statement does not deny the Holocaust happened. But he was convicted of inciting racial hatred by trivializing the Holocaust, also a crime in Germany, Grauel said. The National Front advocates sending home France's millions of immigrants and reserving jobs and welfare for French-born citizens. It is widely accused of racism and anti-Semitism.
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