15 June 2012 Last updated at 05:15 ET

French philosopher Roger Garaudy dies

Roger Garaudy (file picture) Garaudy was convicted of Holocaust denial in 1998

Controversial French philosopher Roger Garaudy has died at the age of 98.

An ex-member of the communist party, he converted to Islam in the 1980s. His 1996 book The Founding Myths of Israeli Politics denied that the killing of Jews by the Nazis constituted genocide.

He was given a suspended jail sentence for Holocaust denial in 1998.

During the war 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, he initially converted to Protestantism before rejoining the Catholic Church and eventually embracing Islam.

More on This Story

More Europe stories

RSS

Features & Analysis

Elsewhere on the BBC

  • Sport in SpainSuper-charged sport Watch

    BBC Travel has a go at an unusual activity which once held the world record for fastest ball speed

Programmes

  • Marc CieslakClick Watch

    On the front-line as Sony and Microsoft go into battle with console wars – but who will win?

BBC © 2013 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.