French court convicts soccer fan for Hitler salute

32-year-old fined $910 and banned from the arena for two years for illegal gesture

JTA — A French judge 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, identified by the court as M. Fetri, according to the news site Paris Depeches. Fetri was seen making the Hitler salute on Jan. 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, Fetri, 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 Fetri 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 Euro penalty — worth about $1.28 — 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.