Marine Le Pen expected to face charges for incitement to racial hatred

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Marine Le Pen expected to face charges for incitement to racial hatred

Angelique Chrisafis in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 2 July 2013 12.56 BST

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right Front National, is expected to face charges for incitement to racial hatred in France, after the European parliament voted to lift her parliamentary immunity.

The French state prosecutor in Lyon had asked the European parliament to lift Le Pen's protection from prosecution as an MEP so she could face charges over a speech in 2010 in which she likened Muslim street prayers to the Nazi occupation of France.

The case threatens to upset Le Pen's careful public relations strategy since taking over the party from her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen. She had sought to project a modern, more palatable face of the far-right in France, free from the type of comments about the second world war and Holocaust denial that resulted in her father being convicted.

Last year, Le Pen Sr was convicted of contesting crimes against humanity for saying the Nazi occupation was not "particularly inhumane"

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Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/02/marine-le-pen-immunity-lifted

[Nye Bevan]

1. No First Amendment.

Makes me very thankful that we have freedom of speech in the USA. Imagine how many prosecutions there would be if (for example) saying mean things about Christianity was illegal.