Brigitte Bardot Fined $25K For Inciting Racial Hatred

Former screen siren Brigitte Bardot was ordered to pay $23,345 by a Paris court after being convicted of provoking discrimination and racial hatred against Muslims Tuesday morning.

The jury found the 73-year-old French actress guilty of triggering hate against Muslims over a letter she wrote claiming the race was destroying France.

She wrote a letter to the then Interior Minister, and now President, Nicolas Sarkozy in December 2006 and then subsequently published it on her foundation's quarterly journal.

In the letter she said that France is "tired of being led by the nose by this population that is destroying us, destroying our country by imposing its acts."

Bardot particularly referred to the Muslim festival of Aid el-Kebir, which reportedly slaughters sheep.

This is her fifth race-related conviction for the past 11 years.

The judge had rejected the prosecution's recommendation of jailing the actress for two months. Aside from the fine, the judge instead ordered that the court's ruling be published in the newsletter of her animal rights foundation.

Bardot is a longtime animal rights activist since her retirement from the entertainment business more than three decades ago.