PARIS: French far-right leader Marine Le Pen on Thursday said those behind death threats against a judge and prosecutors trying her in a graft trial should be punished, in her first comments on a police investigation into the abuse.
Reuters reported this week that police are investigating threats against a judge and two prosecutors in the trial, which could derail Le Pen’s hopes of running in the 2027 presidential vote where polls have her as frontrunner.
Lead prosecutors Louise Neyton and Nicolas Barret have asked for a five-year ban from public office for Le Pen. Three judges, led by Benedicte de Perthuis, are due to give a verdict on March 31.
Le Pen said the threats, which came in now-deleted comments on two articles in far-right website Riposte Laique (Secular Response), should not be trivialized.
“This serious trend, which consists of threatening to kill anyone — police officers, judges, elected officials, artists, etc. — with whom some feel in disagreement, is a worrying development which, given its scale, must be the subject of reflection by the justice system,” she wrote on X.
“Prosecutions must therefore be systematically initiated and the perpetrators convicted,” added Le Pen, whose late-father’s often-inflammatory rhetoric led to convictions for inciting racial hatred and condoning war crimes.
Le Pen, her National Rally (RN) party and some two dozen party figures are accused of diverting funds intended for European Parliament staff. In a TV interview on Wednesday night, Le Pen reiterated she was innocent of the charges against her.
She said she could not imagine judges would deprive the French of choosing their presidential candidate and that barring her from office would be an attack on democracy.
The threats around the trial have raised concerns in France about growing risks of violence against figures of authority, including thousands of verbal and physical attacks against mayors, as well as a suspected attempt to ambush a prosecutor looking into organized crime that was foiled by police.
“This is not a specific feature of this trial but a more general and very worrying trend,” Marie-Suzanne Le Queau, the attorney general of the Paris Court of Appeal, told France Inter radio on Wednesday. “All those who exercise authority ... are increasingly the target of death threats and completely uninhibited remarks.”
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France’s Le Pen condemns death threats against those trying her
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France’s Le Pen condemns death threats against those trying her
- Three judges, led by Benedicte de Perthuis, are due to give a verdict on March 31
- Le Pen said the threats, which came in now-deleted comments on two articles in far-right website Riposte Laique (Secular Response), should not be trivialized.
ASEAN will not certify Myanmar election or send observers, Malaysia says
KUALA LUMPUR: The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations will not send observers to army-ruled Myanmar’s ongoing three-stage election and will therefore not endorse the poll, Malaysia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against a civilian government in 2021.
The election, which began in December last year, has been criticized by the United Nations, many Western countries and rights groups as a ploy to legitimize military rule through political proxies — a charge the junta has denied.
In a low turnout, voters cast their ballots in the second stage of the poll earlier this month, with the military-allied Union Solidarity and Development Party leading after securing 88 percent of the lower house seats contested over the first phase.
Speaking in parliament, Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN had rejected a request from Myanmar to send election observers during the annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, though some individual member states had decided to do so on their own.
“We have said that ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the poll,” Mohamad said in response to a question from another lawmaker about Malaysia and ASEAN’s position on the election.
Separately, Mohamad also said ASEAN was in the final stages of concluding a long-proposed code of conduct with Beijing this year concerning activities in the South China Sea.
“We hope we are able to do it by this year,” he said.
ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct but took 15 years to start discussions, and progress has been slow.
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including parts of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, complicating fishing and energy exploration activities by those countries.
Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against a civilian government in 2021.
The election, which began in December last year, has been criticized by the United Nations, many Western countries and rights groups as a ploy to legitimize military rule through political proxies — a charge the junta has denied.
In a low turnout, voters cast their ballots in the second stage of the poll earlier this month, with the military-allied Union Solidarity and Development Party leading after securing 88 percent of the lower house seats contested over the first phase.
Speaking in parliament, Minister Mohamad Hasan said ASEAN had rejected a request from Myanmar to send election observers during the annual leaders’ summit in Kuala Lumpur last year, though some individual member states had decided to do so on their own.
“We have said that ASEAN will not send observers, and by virtue of that, we will not certify the poll,” Mohamad said in response to a question from another lawmaker about Malaysia and ASEAN’s position on the election.
Separately, Mohamad also said ASEAN was in the final stages of concluding a long-proposed code of conduct with Beijing this year concerning activities in the South China Sea.
“We hope we are able to do it by this year,” he said.
ASEAN and China pledged in 2002 to create a code of conduct but took 15 years to start discussions, and progress has been slow.
Beijing claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including parts of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zones of the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, complicating fishing and energy exploration activities by those countries.
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