Couldn’t happen to a nicer antisemite.
French comedian Dieudonné, a convicted anti-Semite whose shows the government once tried to shut down, was sentenced to two years in jail for tax fraud and money laundering on Friday by a court in Paris.
The controversial performer, who has also been found guilty of condoning terrorism in the past, has a loyal following in France, particularly in low-income suburban areas of major cities.
The court in Paris handed him a €200,000 ($225,000) fine, as well as the two-year jail sentence, which he is unlikely to serve under arrangements that will allow him to do community service instead.
The trial related to over one million euros of undeclared earnings from the showman, whose full name is Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala.
Investigators found €657,000 at his home in cash, while he and accomplices sent €565,000 overseas, mainly to Cameroon where he has family roots.
Dieudonné, 53, once invited a Holocaust denier onto stage and rails against the “Zionist lobby” which he claims controls the world, though he claims his right to free speech has been infringed.
He has popularised a hand gesture known as the “quenelle”, which was criticised for resembling a Nazi salute.
It’s just a shame he will likely not go to jail. I was hoping he’d be “Quenelle’d” while bending over to pick up the soap in the prison shower.