Paris, France—Marine Le Pen, the French far-right politician, has been ordered to see a psychiatrist after posting pictures of crimes committed by ISIS.
A French court has instructed Le Pen to undergo psychiatric tests “as soon as possible” to determine whether she “is capable of understanding remarks and answering questions.” According to the ruling, the photos she posted “incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity.”
A few weeks after the destructive attacks in Paris in 2015, which claimed 130 innocent lives and wounded hundreds, Le Pen tweeted some photographs. One of them depicted American journalist James Foley after being beheaded by ISIS (she took down the picture after Foley’s family requested her to do so). Another showed an unknown captive being jellied by a tank. And another portrayed the live burning of a Jordanian fighter-jet pilot who was captured by the Islamic radicals.
“I thought I had been through it all: well, no! For having condemned Daesh (IS) horrors in tweets, the ‘justice system’ is putting me through psychiatric tests! Just how far will they go?” said Le Pen, who is also a trained lawyer.
Additionally, she has also lost her parliamentary immunity and is charged with dissemination of provocative and violent messages. Le Pen is the leader of the National Rally (previously known as the National Front). She came surprisingly close to winning the presidency, but lost to Emmanuel Macron.
Le Pen had posted the pictures after a French journalist had compared her party with ISIS. She went in the offensive and claimed that this is an attempt to discredit her and make her appear unstable, and thus politically un-electable.
“Of course, I won’t go and submit myself to this psychiatric evaluation,” she added, prompting the French authorities to force her.
“A prosecutor has ordered psychiatric tests on Marine Le Pen. There are no words. Solidarity with her and those French people who love liberty,” said Matteo Salvini, the Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Secretary whose party is an ally of Le Pen’s National Rally.
If Le Pen continues to refuse to attend the psychiatric tests, she can face up to three years in jail and a $90,000 fine.
France has felt the senseless hate of Islamic extremism particularly hard. The 2015 Paris attacks were followed by numerous others of varying magnitude, including one in Nice when a terrorist driving a heavy-duty truck rammed pedestrian celebrating France’s Independence Day killing 86 and wounding 458 people.
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