for Jack Queen
(Reuters) – US conspirator Alex Jones was sentenced Thursday by a Connecticut judge to pay $ 473 million (€ 466 million) in punitive damages for his defamatory statements about the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
The decision came a month after a jury in Waterbury, Connecticut ordered Alex Jones and the company that controls his website, Infowars, to pay $ 965 million to family members of shooting victims, accused of being actors and of staging the killings as part of a conspiracy to deprive American citizens of the right to own weapons.
Judge Barbara Bellis also issued a decision on Wednesday banning Alex Jones from transferring financial assets outside the United States.
On December 14, 2102, a gunman shot and killed his mother before killing 20 children and six Sandy Hook Preschool staff before committing suicide.
Conspiracy theories relayed by Infowars had exposed the victims’ parents to two years of threats and harassment.
After filing several complaints against him, Alex Jones admitted that the shooting had taken place but refused to apologize to the families during the trial.
His company, Free Speech Systems, filed for bankruptcy in July.
(Jack Queen report, French version Marc Angrand)
