John Galliano found guilty of hate crimes
John Galliano leaving a Paris court in June Getty
Former Dior designer John Galliano has been found guilty of hate crimes.
The French designer was convicted in Paris overnight after making anti-Semitic and racist comments on two separate occasions, in February and October last year.
The court has imposed a suspended fine of $8500 on Galliano, who didn’t appear in court to heat the outcome of the case.
Galliano's attorney , Aurélien Hamelle, spoke to the media as she left the court, calling the ruling a "wise decision" and adding that her client was "very relieved."
According to legal sources, the fine is suspended on condition that Galliano is not found guilty of any crime in France for the next five years.
The court's ruling is the result of two cases heard simultaneously in June.
For the first episode, Galliano was accused of assaulting two people at a café near his apartment in the Marais district of Paris.
The second incident saw Galliano accused of insulting a woman at the same café.
But neither case was related to a third, highly publicized incident, where Galliano was caught on camera professing his love for Hitler.
The French designer was fired from Dior following the controversy surrounding the incidents and has been remarkably absent from public life ever since.
Appearing in court in June, he admitted to having an addiction to sleeping pills, brought on by depression following his father's death, and revealed he was undergoing treatment in a rehabilitation centre.
