Sarkozy promises to submit new Genocide denial criminalizing bill in June
25.04.2012,
14:39
A new draft law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide in France will be submitted to the parliament in June this year, Armenian TV channels reported citing France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy, who spoke at a ceremony yesterday to remember the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Paris.
YEREVAN, April 25. /ARKA/. A new draft law criminalizing the denial of the Armenian genocide in France will be submitted to the parliament in June this year, Armenian TV channels reported citing France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy, who spoke at a ceremony yesterday to remember the victims of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Paris.
The ceremony was held at the monument to great Armenian composer Komitas. Novosti-Armenia news agency said Sarkozy’s rival Francois Hollande was also present at the ceremony.
President Nicolas Sarkozy had ordered his government to draft a new law punishing denial of the Armenian genocide after France's top court struck it down as unconstitutional. France had already recognised the killings as a genocide, but the new law sought to go further by punishing anyone who denies this with up to a year in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros.
However, the Constitutional Council labelled the law an "unconstitutional attack on freedom of expression" and it said it wished "not to enter into the realm of responsibility that belongs to historians".-0-
