September 7, 2012

(JTA) — A French judge has fined a French soccer fan for making a Hitler salute at a match and banned him from entering his city’s main stadium.

The court in Brest, in western France, imposed a $910 fine on the 32-year-old man, according to the news site Paris Depeches. He was seen making the Hitler salute on January 28 at Brest’s Francis Leble Stadium during a match between a local team and the Parisian Paris Saint-Germain team. After being detained by police at the stadium, the man, a fan of PSG, gestured at other Parisian supporters in what he described as “a stupid game between fans.”

The judge in Brest ruled that he should pay the equivalent of $7.50 per day for 120 days. The prosecution sought a five-year ban from the city’s stadium for the offender, but the judge limited the ban to two years. The judge also awarded a symbolic $1.2 compensation to be paid by the man to PSG and to the French nonprofit LICRA, or the International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism.

Displaying Nazi symbols or making Nazi salutes is illegal in several European countries, including France, Austria and Germany.

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