EU Lawmakers to Examine Lifting Le Pen's Immunity in July
The European Parliament will examine in the first week of July whether to lift the immunity of far-right French MEP Marine Le Pen, as France seeks to prosecute her over remarks likening Islamic prayers to the Nazi occupation, the parliament's judicial affairs committee said Monday.
"The European Parliament will vote July 2 or 3" on lifting the immunity of the leader of France's National Front, said a spokesman for the deputy leader of the committee, French Socialist Francoise Castex.
A spokesman for the parliament had at the weekend confirmed a BBC report saying the vote would take place June 11 following a closed-door vote by the judicial affairs committee last week.
But Castex's spokesman said the committee's stand last week had no judicial standing but was simply a recommendation, though 13 members favored lifting her immunity with only one vote against.
The committee will take a formal vote June 19 behind closed doors, before the matter goes before the full parliament.
French authorities asked the European Parliament in November to lift Le Pen's immunity as a lawmaker so that she can be prosecuted for remarks made in a speech to National Front (FN) supporters in December 2010.
In the speech Le Pen denounced the holding of Muslim prayers in the streets of France -- where a dearth of mosques has forced many to pray outside -- saying: "For those who like to talk about World War II, to talk about occupation, we could talk about, for once, the occupation of our territory.
"This is an occupation of parts of our territory... There are no armored vehicles, no soldiers, but it is an occupation all the same and it weighs on people."
Prosecutors in Lyon, where the speech took place, opened an investigation into the remarks for "inciting racial hatred" in January 2011 following a complaint from an anti-racism group.
As with many national parliaments, members of the European Parliament enjoy immunity from criminal and civil liability for opinions expressed as part of their duties, unless the chamber votes to lift the immunity.
FN vice president Florian Philippot told Agence France Presse that he would wait for the full parliament's vote, adding that it would be unheard of if Le Pen lost her immunity "for having spoken the truth about the (Muslim) prayers in the streets which still take place.... The French do not like when people hide the truth from them."
Le Pen took over the FN from her father, party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen, who has several convictions for racism and anti-Semitism.
Marine Le Pen, who was first elected to the European Parliament in 2004, won 18 percent of the vote in the first round of France's presidential election in April 2012, the party's highest-ever score.
Source: Agence France Presse
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