France’s Le Pen ordered to undergo psychiatric tests over IS tweets

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen voices outrage after being ordered to undergo psychiatric tests for having posted pictures of atrocities committed by the Islamic State group on Twitter.

Le Pen shared the gruesome images in December 2015, a few weeks after IS jihadists killed 130 people in attacks in Paris, sparking widespread condemnation in France.

The 50-year-old leader of the National Rally (formerly National Front), who lost to Emmanuel Macron in last year’s presidential vote, was stripped of her parliamentary immunity over the pictures and charged with circulating messages that “incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity.”

This morning, she tweeted copies of a court order ordering her to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

Dated September 11, it calls for the tests to be carried out “as soon as possible” to establish whether she “is capable of understanding remarks and answering questions.”

“It’s crazy,” fumes Le Pen, herself a trained lawyer. “This regime is really starting to be frightening,” she tweets, suggesting that the case was part of a government plot to discredit her.

— AFP