[JURIST] A French court Friday sentenced Jean-Marie Le Pen [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], leader of France's far-right National Front party [party website, in French], for making public comments minimizing the World War II Nazi occupation of France. The charges stem from a 2005 interview [BBC report] with the right-wing weekly magazine Rivarol [media website, in French], in which Le Pen said that the occupation was "not particularly inhumane." Le Pen received a suspended three-month jail sentence and was fined 10,000 euros. BBC News has more. Le Monde has local coverage, in French.

Le Pen went on trial [JURIST report] in December for "complicity in contesting crimes against humanity and complicity in justifying war crimes." Under a French anti-racism law [text, in French; Wikipedia backgrounder on the "Loi Gayssot"], it is illegal to deny Nazi war crimes.