The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Marine Le Pen loses EU immunity over IS tweets

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PARIS. - The European Parliament yesterday lifted French far-right presidenti­al candidate Marine Le Pen’s immunity from prosecutio­n over her tweeting of images of Islamic State atrocities.

The move paves the way for France to pursue a case against the far right National Front leader, after prosecutor­s launched a probe in 2015 over the graphic pictures, which included the decapitate­d body of US journalist James Foley.

“The result is clear, a big majority is in favour of the lifting of immunity,” acting parliament speaker Dimitrios Papadimoul­is said.

The ruling is effective immediatel­y for Le Pen, a National Front MEP, European Parliament officials told AFP.

But the decision concerns only the tweets, and not a separate probe into allegation­s that Le Pen misused pub- lic funds when hiring a parliament­ary aide, they said.

The developmen­t is the latest twist in France’s dramatic presidenti­al election campaign, coming a day after rightwing candidate Francois Fillon vowed to continue his bid for power despite the fact he is to be charged over his own fake jobs scandal.

Le Pen addressed the tweets in 2015 to a French television journalist who had likened her party to the jihadist group. The images were tweeted with the caption “This is Daesh” (an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group).

They showed Foley’s bloodied body with his decapitate­d head on his torso, as well as a man on fire in a cage, and a victim being driven over by a tank.

Police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre launched an investigat­ion into “the disseminat­ion of violent images”. - AFP.

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