Marine Le Pen ordered to undergo psychiatric tests for tweeting images of Isil atrocities 

French far-Right leader Marine Le Pen has refused to undergo court-ordered psychiatric evaluation for tweeting photos of Isil atrocities, angrily comparing the demand to methods used by totalitarian regimes.

Ms Le Pen was stripped of her parliamentary immunity and then charged in March with “distributing violent images” for tweeting three gruesome pictures showing killings by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

On Thursday she tweeted copies of a court document ordering her to undergo the evaluation before the case goes to trial, at which she faces the possibility of up to three years in prison and a fine of €75,000 (£66,000)

“I thought I had seen it all, but no! For denouncing the horrors of Daesh in tweets, the ‘justice system’ is putting me through psychiatric tests! Just how far will they go?" she said in another tweet, using the Arabic acronym for Isil.

"This regime is really starting to be frightening," she wrote in a further post, suggesting that the case was part of a government plot to discredit her.

Later the leader of the National Rally (formerly the Front National), who lost to the centrist Emmanuel Macron in last year’s presidential election, spoke to journalists in the corridors of the National Assembly to say she would not attend any evaluation.

“I’m waiting to see how the magistrates plan to force me to do it,” said Ms Le Pen.

The court order was dated 11 September and requested that the tests be carried out as soon as possible to determine whether the 50-year-old "is capable of understanding remarks and answering questions."

Ms Le Pen also argued that obligatory psychiatric evaluation was usually reserved for sex offenders and paedophiles.

The images that she tweeted in December 2015, with the caption "This is Daesh [the Arabic acronym for Isil],” included a picture of the beheaded US journalist, James Foley, a man on fire in a cage, and a tank driving over another victim.

Murdered US journalist James Foley's parents accused Ms Le Pen of using their son’s "shamefully uncensored" image for political gainCredit:
YANN COATSALIOU/ AFP

At the time, Mr Foley’s parents accused Ms Le Pen of using their son’s "shamefully uncensored" image for political gain.

Ms Le Pen later deleted the photograph from her account and claimed she did not know it showed Mr Foley when she tweeted it. She said she removed it immediately after his family complained.

Mr Foley, a freelance reporter, was abducted in Syria in 2012 and beheaded in August 2014.

Ms Le Pen had shared the images in response to a French journalist who drew a comparison between Isil and her anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, eurosceptic party.

Click Here: Geelong Cats Guernsey

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *