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French comedian Dieudonné given suspended sentence following Facebook post

French satirist Dieudonné has been given a suspended two-month sentence following a postin...
Newstalk
Newstalk

15.08 18 Mar 2015


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French comedian Dieudonné give...

French comedian Dieudonné given suspended sentence following Facebook post

Newstalk
Newstalk

15.08 18 Mar 2015


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French satirist Dieudonné has been given a suspended two-month sentence following a posting on Facebook.

The controversial comedian wrote "I feel like Charlie Coulibaly" on Facebook in January, shortly after the Paris attacks in which 17 people were killed.

The words combined the slogan "Je suis Charlie" that was used after the murders of the journalists working for Charlie Hebdo magazine and the surname of Amedy Coulibaly, the Islamist who killed a policewoman and four Jews in an attack on a Jewish supermarket.

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Prosecutor Annabelle Philippe had accused Dieudonné of presenting "in a favourable light the acts committed by Amedy Coulibaly" and seeming to be in sympathy with the attacker.

She had called for a fine of €30,000, which, if not paid, could be made into a prison term.

But the satirist insisted he "condemned the attacks without any restraint and without any ambiguity".

The comedian is no stranger to controversy, having first made national headlines with his trademark "quenelle" hand gesture that seems to be an inverted Nazi salute.

He insisted it was nothing of the kind, merely a demonstration of his anti-establishment credentials.

His arrest - and that of others, some of whom have been jailed for up to four years - have raised questions about free speech in France.

Main image: French humorist Dieudonné M'bala M'bala at the 2005 Axis for Peace conference. Source: Réseau Voltaire via Wikimedia Commons, 3.0

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