Alex Jones to the Texas court. — © via REUTERS
The well-known far-right American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has to pay another $45 million fine to the parents of a child who died in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school. That was decided by a jury in Texas. He already sentenced Jones yesterday to pay damages of more than 4 million dollars.
Source: BELGA
The influential Jones has repeatedly dismissed the shooting on his fake news channel ‘InfoWars’ and his much-listened podcast ‘The Alex Jones Show’ as a hoax in recent years. The event was allegedly staged to discredit the gun lobby.
ALSO READ. American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones cornered in court: contents of mobile phone leaked
He was on trial in Texas after a couple who lost a child in the shooting took him to court. The jury already ordered him on Thursday to pay $4.1 million in damages. On Friday, the jury decided that Jones must also pay a fine of $ 45.2 million, converted 44.4 million euros.
© AFP
In total, Jones has to cough up almost 50 million dollars, about 49 million euros. The couple had demanded $150 million. The conspiracy theorist admitted during the trial that the shooting did indeed take place.
The Sandy Hook shooting killed 20 children and six adults. The perpetrator was a young man with a semi-automatic rifle. Jones will soon have to answer to two more lawsuits for his statements about the deadly shooting.