Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Dieudonne Convicted for Charlie Hebdo Joke

A French comedian was found guilty on Wednesday of condoning terrorism for a joke posted on his Facebook account after Islamist attacks in Paris that killed 17 people in January, but escaped a possible jail sentence.

The Paris court sentenced Dieudonne M’bala M’bala to a suspended sentence of two months in jail. He had risked up to 7 years in prison and a potential 100,000 euro ($106,000) fine.

Dieudonne – who has repeatedly been fined by the courts for hate speech – wrote just days after the attacks on Facebook that he felt “Charlie Coulibaly.”

That was a play on the ubiquitous “I am Charlie” slogan of solidarity following the attacks against cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo weekly, using the last name of one of the Paris attackers.

Amedy Coulibaly killed one policeman in the attacks and four Jews during a raid on a Jewish supermarket.

Dieudonne has been found guilty seven times for slander or anti-Semitic statements, while his shows have been banned in some cities as a threat to public order. Authorities say he owes thousands of euros in fines related to past convictions.

The comedian, who insists he is not anti-Semitic, is credited with inventing the “quenelle,” a gesture critics have likened to an inverted Nazi salute.

Dieudonne posted his Facebook comment on the eve of a huge public march of solidarity in Paris in which more than 3.7 million people, many carrying “I am Charlie” signs, honored the journalists, policemen and shoppers killed by Islamist gunmen.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.