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Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala’s properties have been raided by police as part of a fraud inquiry, French media report.
Police swooped on several properties owned by Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala as well as the Main d’Or theatre in Paris, where he has staged some of his shows.
The controversial comedian is suspected of a fraudulent declaration of bankruptcy, money-laundering and abuse of company assets.
The government has vowed to make Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala pay fines for hate speech.
According to French media, Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala has transferred 400,000 euros ($547,000) to Cameroon since 2009 while failing to pay fines totalling 65,000 euros.
Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala has been convicted six times of hate speech against Jews and popularized a gesture called the “quenelle”, widely regarded as an inverted Nazi salute.
Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala’s properties have been raided by police as part of a fraud inquiry
Police have detained a man suspected of distributing a photo of a quenelle being made outside a Jewish school in the south-western city of Toulouse, where an Islamist gunman shot dead three small children and a teacher in March 2012, AFP news agency reports.
The man who was detained near Marseille on Tuesday is also suspected of distributing another image of a quenelle outside the Toulouse flat of the killer, Mohammed Merah, who died in a police siege.
Youths could be seen making quenelles at a rally against President Francois Hollande on Sunday in Paris, which was organized by small, mainly right-wing organizations.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls accused Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala of trying to bankrupt himself earlier this month in order to avoid paying the fines.
Police questioned the comedian last week after bailiffs reported being fired on with rubber bullets at his house.
The bailiffs had said they could not ascertain who had opened fire but a weapon was later found during a search of Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala ‘s property.
Earlier this month a ban on Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala ‘s one-man show The Wall (Le Mur) was upheld by France’s highest court.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls had taken strenuous steps to ban the show. Initial performances in Paris contained sketches including the performer miming urination against the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala was also recorded referring to the Holocaust in remarks about a Jewish journalist and mocking commemoration of the Nazi extermination of the Jews.
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Comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, viewed as a dangerous anti-Semite by the French government, has appealed against a ban on his show, Le Mur (The Wall).
Dieudonne M’bala M’bala lodged the appeal with France’s highest court, the Council of State, after it overruled a provincial judge on Thursday and reinstated the ban.
The ban took effect as fans gathered for the first show of a tour, in the western city of Nantes on Thursday.
Authorities in other cities on the tour have also banned the performance.
Legal analysts say that while the Council of State decision applied specifically to Nantes, judges in other cities will have to take it into account and a flurry of further bans is likely.
Among the performances of The Wall which have been banned is one that was scheduled for the city of Tours on Friday.
Supporters of Dieudonne M’bala M’bala and critics of the bans accuse the authorities of denying the comic freedom of speech.
Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has appealed against a ban on his show
However, government lawyers argue that the fundamentally racist nature of his act means it cannot be afforded protection under France’s constitutional provisions on freedom of speech.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls wants Dieudonne M’bala M’bala kept off all stages in France, condemning the comic’s “mechanics of hate”.
PM Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was satisfied with the Council of State ban.
“What’s at stake is the struggle against the drift towards anti-Semitism in which Dieudonne was engaged,” he said on Friday.
“Over the course of time, each show leads to a spiraling out of control. And we can’t accept that in our society there is the slightest complacency with regards to anti-Semitism. It’s totally alien to our values and principles.”
Shocked fans booed outside the concert hall in Nantes, where more than 5,000 people had been due to see the show.
Some gave Dieudonne M’bala M’bala’s trademark “quenelle” gesture, which is regarded by many as an inverted Nazi salute, while some brandished pineapples.
One of Dieudonne M’bala M’bala’s most notorious songs, Shoananas, roughly translates as Pineapple-Holocaust and mocks commemoration of the Nazi extermination of the Jews.
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Far-right Austrian politician Heinz-Christian Strache has caused anger after posting a cartoon on Facebook, likened to anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda.
Heinz-Christian Strache posted a caricature of a banker with a hooked nose, wearing Star of David cufflinks.
Austrian Jewish leader Oskar Deutsch likened it to images used by the Nazis in the 1930s.
Heinz-Christian Strache, who leads the Freedom Party, has denied he was being anti-Semitic.
Heinz-Christian Strache posted a caricature of a banker with a hooked nose, wearing Star of David cufflinks
The cartoon was posted on Saturday, accompanied by a comment from Heinz-Christian Strache decrying “EU banking speculators” for taking tax money from Austrians.
On Sunday Heinz-Christian Strache posted a second version, labelled in English. The Star of David emblems had been removed from the banker’s cufflinks and the shape of his nose had also been changed.
Both images show another figure labelled “The Government” pouring a drink for the banker, while a third, poorly clothed and thin figure labelled “The People”, sits opposite the banker with a bone on his plate.
“It is not a coincidence that a caricature of Jews, similar to the ones in <<Der Stuermer>> in the 1930s and 1940s, appeared on the Facebook page of Freedom Party leader Mr. Strache,” Oskar Deutsch said, referring to a newspaper published by the Nazis.
Austrian politicians from both centre-left and conservative parties have condemned the cartoon.
The conservative People’s Party called on the Freedom Party (FPO) to address “the incendiary and discriminating tones within the party itself”.
A lawyer in Vienna has also said he will sue the FPO for holocaust denial, which is illegal in Austria.
Heinz-Christian Strache and the FPO have frequently faced accusations of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
On Sunday Heinz-Christian Strache responded to the backlash with a further comment on Facebook saying he did not tolerate anti-Semitism and insisted that he was highlighting his scorn for “the caste of greedy bankers”.
French philosopher Roger Garaudy has died on Wednesday, June 13, at the age of 98 at his home in Chennevieres-sur-Marne, near Paris.
An ex-member of the communist party, the controversial philosopher converted to Islam in the 1980s.
Roger Garaudy’s 1996 book The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics denied that the killing of Jews by the Nazis constituted genocide.
Roger Garaudy (Ragaa Garaudy) was given a suspended jail sentence for Holocaust denial in 1998.
French philosopher Roger Garaudy has died on Wednesday, June 13, at the age of 98 at his home in Chennevieres-sur-Marne, near Paris
During the war Roger Garaudy joined the French Resistance and later wrote more than 50 books – mainly on political philosophy and Marxism.
He was expelled from the French Communist Party in 1970 after criticising the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
Born into a Catholic family, Roger Garaudy initially converted to Protestantism before rejoining the Catholic Church and eventually embracing Islam.
Roger Garaudy will be cremated on Monday, June 18, at Champigny-sur-Marne crematorium at 03:00 p.m.
