Belgian court jails controversial performer for two months after ruling he incited hatred with racist and antisemitic comments at a show in Liège

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The controversial French comedian, Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, has been sentenced to two months in jail by a Belgian court for incitement to hatred over racist and antisemitic comments he made during a show.

Dieudonné, who has faced similar cases in France, was also fined €9,000 (£6,300) by the court in Liège. He was not in court for the verdict.

Eric Lemmens, a lawyer for Belgium’s Jewish organisations, told Agence France-Presse that the judgment “says that all the accusations against Dieudonné were established – both incitement to hatred and hate speech but also Holocaust denial”. The charges related to a show in Liège in 2012. “For me this is more than satisfying, this is a major victory,” he said.

Earlier this month, the European court of human rights in Strasbourg ruled against Dieudonné in a separate case, deciding that freedom of speech did not protect “racist and antisemitic performances”.

Dieudonné was protesting a fine he received from a French court in 2009 for inviting a Holocaust denier on stage. He was fined €10,000 for what that court referred to as racist insults.

In March, another French court handed Dieudonné a two-month suspended prison sentence and fined him heavily for antisemitic remarks after he caused uproar by suggesting he sympathised with the attacks against the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, and a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

“I feel like Charlie Coulibaly,” he wrote on Facebook, a play on the slogan “Je suis Charlie” that became a global rallying cry against extremism, and a reference to Amédy Coulibaly, one of the attackers.

The performer, who made his name in a double act with the Jewish comedian, Élie Semoun, is known for his trademark “quenelle” hand gesture that looks like an inverted Nazi salute but which he insists is merely anti-establishment.

Opponents say his controversial comments are racist, while supporters champion his right to free speech.

Dieudonné, who can appeal the decision, could not be reached for comment.