Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, a black comedian in France known for his polemic and often political humour, was Friday fined 5,000 euros for comparing Jews to slave-traders in a newspaper interview two years ago.

It was the first conviction for anti-Semitism for the comic -- who goes by just his first name -- who has often been in legal hot water for controversial comments about Jews, but who up to now has been acquitted on grounds of free speech.

The Paris court found that in this instance he had overstepped that line in an interview with the February 8, 2004 edition of Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper in which he described the hostility he had received from Jewish groups.

"’Dirty nigger, the Jews want to skin you’ -- that’s the sort of remarks
I’ve been hearing. They (Jews) are all slave-traders who have turned to banking, show-business and, today, terrorist action who show their support for Ariel Sharon’s policies," Dieudonne was quoted as saying.

As well as fining him 5,000 euros for making anti-Semitic comments, the court ordered Dieudonne -- who was not present -- to pay a symbolic one euro in damages to three French Jewish groups, a lawyers’ rights group and an anti-racist group which had joined the criminal case as civil plaintiffs.

In doing so, it dismissed his defence, given in January, that he had been simply trying to make reference to Israel’s support of South Africa’s apartheid-era government, "which oppressed blacks".

Dieudonne -- who once notoriously presented a television sketch in which he gave a Nazi salute while dressed as an orthodox Jew in an attempt to denounce what he saw as “fascist Israeli policies” -- has announced he intends to stand as a fringe candidate in French presidential elections next year.

The 40-year-old comic was born in a Paris suburb to a French mother and a Cameroonian father. He owns and runs a theatre in the capital that showcases works by young actors and comedians.