PARIS (AFP/EJP) - The leader of a banned extremist black power group appeared in a French court Monday to defend himself against charges of anti-Semitism over the contents of his website.

Stellio Capochichi -- who calls himself Kemi Seba -- is the head of "Tribu Ka", a black identity group outlawed in July by the French authorities after its members descended on a Paris Jewish quarter, wielding baseball bats and shouting anti-Semitic slogans.

More than 20 members of the group walked up and down the crowded Rue des Rosiers, performing Nazi salutes, looking for a fight with the neighbourhood’s Jews, threatening and intimidating them.

Hatred of Jews

The Union of Jewish Students in France (UEJF) is now also calling for Kemi Seba’s personal website -- which the group’s lawyer said was "marked with the hatred of Jews on every page" -- to be banned.

The Paris prosecutor, Pauline Caby, has declared that she is in favour of closing the website “because its unlawful character is obvious.”

Philippe Missamou, Seba’s lawyer, denounced the UEJF’s “victimization” and defended the “freedom of expression”.

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Tribu Ka, which was created in december 2004, advocates the separation of the races and a return to Africa for black people.

The website in question refers repeatedly to the "Zionist AIDS".

Following the hearing, cheered on by a group of black-clad supporters, he told the television cameras defiantly: "The judge is a Zionist, the client is a Zionist, the decision will be Zionist."

The verdict is due on Monday 25 September.