Le Pen trial: French far-right leader acquitted on hate speech charges

A French court on Tuesday acquitted far-right leader and presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen on charges she broke hate speech laws by tweeting pictures of Islamic State atrocities.

Published: 4 May 2021 15:47 CEST

Le Pen trial: French far-right leader acquitted on hate speech charges

Marine Le Pen. Photo: Bertrand Guay/AFP

Le Pen shared the gruesome images in December 2015, a few weeks after Islamic State jihadists killed 130 people in attacks in Paris, in response to a journalist who she accused of drawing a comparison between IS and her party.

One of the pictures showed the body of James Foley, an American journalist beheaded by the Islamist militants.

Another showed a man in an orange jumpsuit being run over by a tank, and the third a Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.

“Daesh is this!” Le Pen wrote in a caption, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

In 2018 a judge charged her, as well as her Rassemblement National (National Rally) party colleague Gilbert Collard who also tweeted the pictures, with circulating “violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity” and that can be viewed by a minor.

The crime is punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of €75,000, but the prosecution sought only a €5,000 fine.

The court acquitted both Le Pen and Collard on Tuesday, citing the right to freedom of expression.

The court recognised Le Pen’s intention to inform by sharing the images and said doing so can contribute to public debate, as long as violence is not normalised.

“It’s a great victory for law because freedom of expression was at stake in this case,” Le Pen’s lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut told reporters.

“Freedom of expression has been recognised as complete for a top politician,” he added.

The verdict comes as opinion polls show Le Pen will likely face off again against President Emmanuel Macron in next year’s presidential contest, in a repeat of the run-off seen in the last presidential elections in 2017.

Member comments

Anonymous - 5 May 2021 at 07:59 CEST

How she slithered away from this is beyond belief. It makes one wonder what the politics of the “court” were.
Anonymous - 5 May 2021 at 09:05 CEST

I don’t like Marine le Pen, but I support freedom of speech.
The pictures she posted on twitter were gruesome, I agree, however I feel it’s a good thing for people to see the atrocities caused by IS.
You could turn away and not look if you prefer, that’s your choice.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

A hung parliament with a large eurosceptic, anti-immigration contingent could weaken France’s international standing and threaten Western unity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

With the country on tenterhooks, last week saw more than 200 tactical-voting pacts between centre and left wing candidates in seats to attempt to prevent the RN winning an absolute majority.

This has been hailed as a return of the anti-far right “Republican Front” first summoned when Marine Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the run-off of 2002 presidential elections.

Following the pacts, opinion polls forecast that the RN would fall short of the 289 seats needed for an outright majority in the 577-seat National Assembly, while still becoming the largest party.

Such an outcome could allow Macron to possibly build a broad coalition against the RN and keep Gabriel Attal as prime minister on a caretaker basis.

But it could also herald a long period of paralysed politics in France, as it prepares to host the Olympics from July 26th.

“Today the danger is a majority dominated by the far right and that would be catastrophic,” Attal said in a final pre-election interview with French television on Friday.

Many in France remain baffled over why Macron called an election which could end with the RN doubling its presence in parliament and his contingent of centrist MPs halving in number.

But the president, known for his theatrical gestures, appears intent on executing what he calls a “clarification” of French politics, which he hopes will eventually leave three clear camps of far right, centre and hard left.

The final opinion polls published by two organisations on Friday projected the RN would win between 170 to 210 seats, followed by the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) broad left-wing coalition on 145 to 185 and Macron’s centrists on 118 to 150.

Explained: The main parties and big names in France’s snap elections

While Macron’s Ensemble alliance is forecast to come third, the more successful NFP is a fragile mix of several warring factions ranging from traditional Socialists to the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) of firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon.

“France is on the cusp of a seismic political shift,” said analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), warning that even if Macron controlled the government after the election he would face “legislative gridlocks”.

This would weaken “France’s voice on the European and international stage.”

Macron, who disappeared from public view over recent days in order not to provoke the electorate further, has vowed to serve out his term until 2027, when he must step down.

That is when Le Pen scents her best chance to win the Elysée presidential palace at the fourth attempt.

Le Pen has angrily denounced what she has described as Macron’s vision for “one party” rule spanning the right to left by excluding the RN and lashed out at the French elites, which she says conspire against it.

But after the success of the first round, the RN had a sometimes tricky final week of campaigning with a handful of scandals involving RN candidates – including one who had been photographed wearing a Nazi military cap.

After voting began on Saturday in France’s overseas territories, polls opened in mainland France at 8am and were due to close by 8pm.

Preliminary results – which usually give a very close idea of the final outcome – are published shortly afterwards.

A total of 30,000 police, including 5,000 in Paris, have been deployed this weekend to head off trouble.

Follow all the latest news and analysis in English from 8pm on Sunday HERE