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1st LD: Marine le Pen striped of immunity over tweet post

Xinhua, March 2, 2017 Adjust font size:

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Thursday was striped of immunity from prosecution over a tweet post in connection with the Islamic State by the European Parliament in a vote.

Le Pen, leader of National Front party and co-chair of the Europe of Nations and Freedom group in the European Parliament, was under an investigation by French judicial authorities following the posting on her twitter account of three violent images that showed the murder of three hostages by Daesh (IS group) on Dec. 16 2015.

One of the three photographs, which were not blurred, showed U.S. hostage James Foley being beheaded. The images were accompanied by the following comment by Marine Le Pen: "This is Daesh!"

Approved by 18 votes in favor to three against, with no abstentions, the Committee on Legal Affairs in the European Parliament Tuesday recommended to waive the immunity of Marine Le Pen through a plenary vote.

However, the lifting of her immunity would concern only the tweets and not the ongoing probing into the allegation that Le Pen misused public funds by hiring a fake parliamentary aide. Endite