EU legislators consider abolishing Le Pen’s immunity over Daesh images
European Union lawmakers will soon decide whether to strip France's far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen of the EU Parliament immunity for tweeting graphic images of despicable crimes committed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.
Le Pen, also a member of the European Parliament (MEP), is currently under investigation in the European country for three graphic pictures of executions by Daesh, which she had posted on her Twitter account in 2015, including the decapitation of US journalist James Foley in August 2014, said an EU official on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to the official, EU legislators, in response to a request from the French judiciary, will determine whether Le Pen’s uploaded pictures were appropriate to the role of a European deputy. The lawmakers are expected to vote on the issue later in the day.
Le Pen, the leader of the far-right Front National (FN), is currently locked in a growingly close three-way race to replace President Francois Hollande this spring. She is also accused by EU officials of misusing EU funds to allegedly pay a total of €340,000 to her bodyguard and a Paris-based assistant.
She has already lambasted the allegations and the legal proceedings against her as mere political interference in her presidential campaign, demanding a moratorium on judicial probes until the election period is over.
According to the official, her parliamentary immunity can be lifted based on a European Parliament draft report, but the approval of the legislature's legal affairs committee is also required.
The committee’s approval must then be supported by the whole parliament before any decision can be adopted.
EU legislators generally decide to abolish the immunity of MEPs upon request. Last year, the lawmakers did so in 22 cases out of 26 requests from judges, the official further said.
Le Pen launched her election bid earlier in the month with an anti-Islam stance. She has proposed extending the 2004 law banning headscarves and other religious symbols in all public spaces, and has also noted that if she is elected as president, mosques and places of Islamic teaching will be closed down.
She is predicted to do well in the first round of France’s presidential election on April 23. Le Pen is, however, expected to lose the May 7 runoff to either centrist Emmanuel Macron or conservative Francois Fillon.
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