PARIS, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The Laws Commission of the French Senate rejected a bill Wednesday that would make denying the 1915 Armenian genocide in Turkey a crime.
The full Senate will take up the measure Monday, and it is expected to pass, Radio France Internationale reported. The National Assembly approved it in December.
If the bill becomes law, anyone convicted of denying that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were deliberately killed in Turkey could face a year in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros (almost $60,000). A similar law criminalizes Holocaust denial, and a 2001 law officially declares the massacres of 1915 to be genocide.
Armenians say 1.5 million people were killed in a deliberate attempt to wipe them out in Turkey. The Turkish government, which can prosecute people who describe what happened as a genocide, says the actual number was about 500,000 and the killings were a consequence of World War I.
Turkey has threatened France with economic and diplomatic reprisals if the bill becomes law.
