Marine Le Pen stands trial for sharing Islamic State images in case she slams as ‘political’

Marine Le Pen faces three years in prison and a €75,000 fine 

Credit: THOMAS SAMSON/AFP

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen stood trial on Wednesday on charges she breached hate speech laws by tweeting pictures of Islamic State atrocities, a case the presidential runner-up blasted as “political”.

The trial comes as opinion polls show Ms Le Pen will likely duel with Emmanuel Macron in next year’s presidential contest with one suggesting she would only lose in the run-off by four percentage points if it took place today.

She faces charges of circulating "violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity" and that can be viewed by a minor. 

Her National Rally party colleague Gilbert Collard, who also tweeted the pictures, faces the same counts, which are punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (£65,000).

Ms Le Pen shared the gory images in December 2015, a few weeks after jihadists who claimed allegiance to Islamic State, or IS, killed 130 people in attacks in Paris, in response to a journalist who drew a comparison between the terrorist 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!" Ms Le Pen wrote in a caption, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

She later deleted the picture of Mr Foley upon a request from his family, saying she had been unaware of his identity.

His parents had accused her of using their son’s "shamefully censored" image for political gain.

Polls suggest Marine Le Pen will face off once again against Emmanuel Macron in next year's French presidential elections

Credit: THOMAS SAMSON/AFP

On Wednesday, Ms Le Pen, who was stripped of her parliamentary immunity over the pictures, said she was the victim of a “political” witch-hunt. 

“This is a political trial because the minister (of the interior, Bernard Cazeneuve) of the time wished it,” she said outside court.

“It is an extremely serious breach of freedom of expression of the head of an opposition political movement”, she added, accusing the Macron administration of “manipulation of justice”.

Asked whether she would share the images again today, she said “yes”.

Ms Le Pen said the timing of the trial was “heaven-sent” as it coincided with a parliamentary debate over a new law against Islamist “separatism” whose measures, among other things, include a clamp-down on online hate-speech.

The real crime, she said, lay with the journalist who had sought to liken the National Rally to IS. Her aim had been to show she had nothing to do with their murderous ways;

“You naturally can’t confuse or wish to confuse IS with a democratic movement that has sought elected office for 45 years," she said.

A poll in Le Figaro on Wednesday suggested that 69 per cent of French believe Ms Le Pen will face off once again with Mr Macron in next year’s presidential run-off. However, 70 per cent said they would rather see another pair of politicians tussle for the top post.

However, the nearest challengers — Paris’ Socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo on the Left and Hauts-de-France regional chief Xavier Bertrand on the Right — trail them in the polls.