October 30, 2012 - 18:05 AMT
Envoy: French President will fulfill his pledge on Genocide bill

French President François Hollande will fulfill the pledge to adopt a bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial in the country, French ambassador toYerevan said.

“I have no doubt that President Hollande will keep his promise,” Henri Reynaud noted during the meeting with Yerevan State University (YSU) international relations faculty students.

On January 23, the French Senate passed the bill making it a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide. The bill envisaged imposing a 45,000 euro fine and a year in prison for anyone in France who denies this crime against humanity committed by the Ottoman Empire.

Later, the French Constitutional Council ruled that the bill as anti-constitutional. In a statement the Council said the document represented an “unconstitutional breach of the practice of freedom of expression and communication.”