French MP avoids prison over Hitler Gypsies rant Published: 24 Jan 2014 12:05 GMT+01:00 Updated: 24 Jan 2014 12:05 GMT+01:00 A French lawmaker was convicted of glorifying crimes against humanity for saying Hitler "did not kill enough" gypsies, but avoided prison at his sentencing on Thursday. MP Gilles Bourdouleix uttered the remarks in July 2013 as he confronted members of a travelling community who had illegally set up camp in the western town of Cholet, where he is also mayor. His remarks left anti-racism campaign groups outraged, as well as most of France and its politicians. Prosecutors, had sought a six-month prison sentence, saying the lawmaker's glorification of crimes against humanity were inexcusable. In the end he escaped with a suspended fine. The behavior of Gilles Bourdouleix is totally intolerable for law and order. He infringed on our social values, his words are an incitement of disorder, hate and violence," Prosecutor Yves Gambert said. The judges handed down a €3,000 fine, but then suspended it. Bourdouleix was also ordered to pay a €600 fine for insulting the journalist who caught his words on tape. Bourdouleix "s lawyer Pierre Brossard tried to have the case dismissed when the trial opened on Thursday in Angers, saying his clients words were not a "speech." His motion failed. He was talking to no one in particular. He muttered it under his breath," Brossard said, according to French newspaper Le Monde. Does someone who says something foolish, who has been pushed to his limits for an hour and a half, to whom people are making Nazi salutes, without knowing he is being recorded, does he deserve to be pilloried? According to a recording posted on the site of regional daily Courrier de l'Ouest, he is heard saying "maybe Hitler did not kill enough," after some of the travellers, who were not from the Roma community themselves - had reportedly given him the Nazi salute. His comment sparked huge outrage, with Interior Minister Manuel Valls calling for the lawmaker to be "severely punished" for the comments. Bourdouleix has said his comments were taken out of context and alleged the recording was tampered with. The lawmaker has made controversial remarks about Roma in the past, including in November 2010, when he threatened to drive a truck through one of their caravan camps, and last November, when he said France was facing a "new invasion" from the community. Confrontations between French authorities and Roma erupt frequently. In August 2013 a Roma rights group based in southern France filed a police complaint against a Facebook page entitled "Adopt a Gypsy," for what it called the "flood of hatred" brought on by the page on the social networking site. And later that month the cover story of a French magazine headlined "Roma overdose" about the problems caused by the Roma community caused outrage. SEE ALSO: Facebook under fire over 'Adopt a gypsy' page France has a policy of systematically dismantling illegal camps and repatriating Roma of Bulgarian and Romanian nationality - a policy whose legality has been questioned by the European Union, the United Nations' human rights arm and other watchdogs. The Roma, a nomadic people whose ancestors left India centuries ago, have long suffered from discrimination and are frequently accused of carrying out petty crimes. They were killed in their hundreds of thousands by the Nazis during the Second World War, alongside Jews and homosexuals.