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News > World

France's Marine Le Pen Loses EU Parliament Immunity over Tweets

  • Marine Le Pen, French National Front party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, attends a rally in Clairvaux-les-Lacs, Feb. 17, 2017.

    Marine Le Pen, French National Front party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, attends a rally in Clairvaux-les-Lacs, Feb. 17, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 2 March 2017
Opinion

Le Pen has already seen her earnings as MEP cut for a different case involving alleged misuse of EU funds.

European Union lawmakers lifted the EU parliamentary immunity of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Thursday for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence.

Le Pen, who leads her National Front party in the European legislature, is under investigation in France for posting three graphic images of Islamic State group executions on Twitter in December 2015, including the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley.

Le Pen's immunity shielded her from prosecution. By lifting it, after a request from the French judiciary, the parliament is allowing any eventual legal action against her.

The move grants the prosecutor looking into the affair power to bring Le Pen in for police questioning.

In the next steps, the prosecutor could drop the case, appoint an investigating magistrate to delve further into it, or send it straight to trial. A trial date ahead of the election in April and May would require the French legal process to go much faster than it normally does.

The offence being considered is "publishing violent images", which under certain circumstances can carry a penalty of three years in prison and a fine of US$78,930.

Polls say Le Pen will win the first of the two election rounds but lose in the runoff.

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