Lithuania’s Court of Appeal has found MP Remigijus Zemaitaitis, leader of the far-right populist party, Dawn of Nemunas (PPNA), guilty of antisemitism, BNS reports. The court found that Zemaitaitis had incited hatred against Jews and grossly trivialised the Holocaust, systematically distorting historical facts and making “dehumanising comparisons.” The court ordered the MP to pay a fine of EUR 10,000. Zemaitaitis accused the court of making a “political decision” and said that he would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. Viktoras Fiodorovas, chairman of the ethics commission of the Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, insisted that the parliamentary speaker must initiate impeachment proceedings against Zemaitaitis, LRT reported. However, Seimas speaker Juozas Olekas argued that the parliament should wait until the appeal process was over, BNS reported. Zemaitaitis himself stated that he would not resign.
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