He emphasized that this text in the law had only ever been applied “to protect minors from perverts”.
Cette poursuite honteuse contre ceux qui dénoncent DAESH tombe au moment où le gouvernement accueille les djihadistes et leurs familles à bras ouverts. Ça en dit long sur l’état de déliquescence politique et morale de nos « élites » dirigeantes. MLPhttps://t.co/UsVLUi0dtI
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) June 12, 2019
A similar spurious probe was also opened against Gilbert Collard, a RN lawmaker, who had tweeted a similar image on the same day. Collard’s lawyer, Jean-Marc Descoubes, also said at the end of March that the proceedings against the two chiefs of the National Rally (RN) were “unfounded both legally and factually”.
The president of France’s Rassemblement National party Marine Le Pen, is set to stand trial because she responded to a smear campaign in which her party was likened to ISIS. BFMTV journalist Jean-Jacques Bourdin, said Le Pen’s voters were like the jihadist group.
Le Pen then retweeted some gruesome images of ISIS atrocities in the Middle East, which included a photo of the decapitated body of US reporter James Foley. The images were retweeted with the caption “This is Daesh” (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group).
The RN leader was suddenly charged in February 2018 for circulating “violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity”, a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of 75 000 euros.
The latest move comes after the National Assembly voted in November to strip the RN leader of her parliamentary immunity. In March 2017 MPs in the European parliament similarly voted to strip Le Pen of her immunity in order for the political trial to proceed.
In September 2018, Le Pen was ordered to undertake a psychiatric assessment in an effort to humiliate her publicly.
“This only shows French citizens what the EU is, what the European Parliament is and that it’s all part of the system that wants to stop the French people’s candidate that I am,” Le Pen said.
Le Pen had refused to attend a police interview in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. “I am being charged for having condemned the horrors of Daesh [ISIS],” Le Pen told AFP. “In other countries this would have earned me a medal.”