Belgium: Dieudonne sentenced to 2 months in jail
- 9 years ago
A Belgian court sentenced controversial French comedian Dieudonne Wednesday to two months in jail for incitement to hatred over racist and anti-Semitic comments he made during a show in Belgium, a lawyer said.
Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, who has faced similar court cases in France, was also fined 9,000 euros by the court in the eastern city of Liege, said Eric Lemmens, a lawyer for Belgium's Jewish organisations.
In March, a French court also handed Dieudonne a two months suspended sentence and fined him heavily for anti-Semitic remarks after he caused uproar by suggesting he sympathized with the attacks against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in Paris.
The performer, who first made his name in a double act with Jewish comedian Elie Semoun before splitting and taking on an altogether more extremist tone, is infamous for his trademark "quenelle" hand gesture that looks like an inverted Nazi salute but which he insists is merely anti-establishment.
Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala, who has faced similar court cases in France, was also fined 9,000 euros by the court in the eastern city of Liege, said Eric Lemmens, a lawyer for Belgium's Jewish organisations.
In March, a French court also handed Dieudonne a two months suspended sentence and fined him heavily for anti-Semitic remarks after he caused uproar by suggesting he sympathized with the attacks against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket in Paris.
The performer, who first made his name in a double act with Jewish comedian Elie Semoun before splitting and taking on an altogether more extremist tone, is infamous for his trademark "quenelle" hand gesture that looks like an inverted Nazi salute but which he insists is merely anti-establishment.