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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: December 14, 2005 |
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A far-right French leader and member of the European Parliament was stripped of his immunity from court proceedings Tuesday, allowing French authorities to prosecute him for remarks casting doubt on the Holocaust.
At a news conference in October 2004, Bruno Gollnisch, who is a top official in the far-right National Front party of Jean-Marie Le Pen, questioned whether the Nazis used gas chambers in the Holocaust and suggested the number of Jews killed during World War II might have been exaggerated.
The EU assembly usually protects its members from prosecution for remarks made in the plenary. It voted to strip Gollnisch of his immunity on the grounds that he made his remarks on the Holocaust in a personal capacity.
The Gollnisch's trial in a court in Lyon was originally scheduled for September, but was pushed back to May 2006, so that the EU parliament could rule on his immunity.
Gollnisch's comments sparked uproar among Jewish and anti-racism groups, and he was suspended by Jean Moulin University in Lyon, where he taught law and Japanese, for five years over his remarks.
"The majority of this house has just decided, for political reasons, not to defend my immunity. I have noted with satisfaction though that I have been defended by a number of colleagues. I have to say I don't understand people who voted the way they voted because I allegedly spoke in personal capacity," Gollnisch said after the vote. |
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