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Comedian Dieudonne Jailed Over Racist Remarks

Comedian Dieudonne Jailed Over Racist Remarks

A controversial French comedian has been sentenced to two months in prison for incitement to hatred.

The notorious comic Dieudonne M'bala M'bala , who has found himself at the centre of numerous anti-Semitism rows, was jailed over racist and anti-Semitic comments during a show in Belgium in 2012.

He was also fined 9,000 euros (£6,318) by the court in the eastern Belgian city of Liege.

Prosecutors had sought a six-month sentence. He was not in court for the verdict.

Eric Lemmens, a lawyer for Belgium's Jewish organisations, said the verdict was a "major victory".

The judgement says that "all the accusations against Dieudonne were established - both incitement to hatred and hate speech but also Holocaust denial" relating to a show in Liege in 2012, he told news agency AFP.

"For me this is more than satisfying, this is a major victory," Mr Lemmens said.

Earlier this month the European Court of Human Rights ruled against him in a separate anti-Semitism case.

Dieudonne was protesting a 10,000 euro fine he was handed in 2009 for what a court in France referred to as racist insults after he invited a Holocaust-denier on stage.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that freedom of speech did not protect "racist and anti-Semitic performances".

The comic was also handed a two-month suspended sentence in March over comments he wrote on Facebook following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

Dieudonne was banned from entering the UK last September after vowing to visit London to support his footballer friend Nicolas Anelka, who faced a ban from the pitch for performing the comic's controversial trademark 'quenelle' salute.

Many people believe the salute is an anti-Semitic gesture as it has loose similarities to the Nazi salute.

Dieudonne insists the salute is merely anti-establishment.

He can appeal the latest ruling.