French anti-Semitic comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala was fined $24,000 for saying that a Jewish journalist should have died “in the gas chambers.”
The journalist, Patrick Cohen, from Radio France asked on air in 2013 whether the media should pay so much attention to Dieudonne. The comedian replied that the journalist should consider emigrating.
“When I hear Patrick Cohen speaking, I say to myself, you see, the gas chambers … too bad,” he said.
He was sentenced on Thursday by a Paris court for incitement to racial hatred against the Jews.
The conviction came a day after a Paris court gave Dieudonne a suspended two-month jail sentence for social media posts sympathizing with an Islamist gunman who killed four Jews at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris in January. He was convictd for ‘’apology of terrorism.’’
In a Facebook comment posted after the January 7 Charlie Hebdo attack, he claimed, “I feel like Charlie Coulibaly”.
The post, which has since been taken down, merged the slogan “Je suis Charlie” (I am Charlie) – which became a global rallying cry against extremism following the attacks – and the name of Amedy Coulibaly, the terrorist of the kosher supermarket.
The charges of inciting hatred and being an apologist for terrorism has a maximum seven-year prison sentence and a 100,000 euro fine. Prosecutors had however sought a 200-day suspended prison sentence and a fine of 30,000 euros.
Dieudonne has been convicted seven times for inciting racial hatred against Jews. He has been charged almost 40 times under France’s hate-speech laws.