EU Parliament lifts Le Pen immunity over gruesome tweets
PARIS—The European Parliament voted Thursday to lift French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's immunity from prosecution for tweeting gruesome images of violence, a crime carrying a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
The legislature voted by a broad majority in Brussels on Thursday to clear the way for the possible prosecution of Le Pen over tweets she made in December 2015 showing executions, including the killing of American reporter James Foley by Islamic State extremists.
French prosecutors in the city of Nanterre had asked for the lifting of the immunity that Le Pen enjoys as a member of the European Parliament after they opened a preliminary investigation.
Le Pen, a leading candidate in this year's French presidential election, posted her tweets in response to a journalist who drew an analogy between her anti-immigration National Front party and IS extremists. She was trying to show the difference between the two groups but the effort backfired, drawing widespread condemnation.
