French court orders Marine Le Pen to submit to psychiatric evaluation

A French court has ordered far-right leader and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen to submit to a psychiatric evaluation after she posted Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) execution images to her Twitter account.

Reuters first reported that Le Pen made the announcement of the tribunal’s decision on Thursday in a statement denouncing the court’s decision. The investigation into her Twitter habits stems from 2015 posts in which she posted three images of ISIS executioners performing grisly murders.

The tribunal declined to comment on Le Pen’s case but noted that such evaluations are commonplace, Reuters reported.

{mosads}“I thought I had seen it all: but no! For having denounced the horrors of #Daesh in tweets, the ‘justice’ is submitting me to a psychiatric evaluation! How far will they go?” Le Pen wrote on Twitter, using an alternative name for ISIS.

Je croyais avoir eu droit à tout : eh bien non ! Pour avoir dénoncé les horreurs de #Daech par tweets, la « justice » me soumet à une expertise psychiatrique ! Jusqu’où vont-ils aller ?! MLP

— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) September 20, 2018

In 2017 Le Pen mounted a surprisingly strong presidential campaign, which ended in her defeat at the hands of centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron, now France’s president.

Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a member of Italy’s right-wing Northern League, defended Le Pen, according to Reuters. The Northern League shares many of the same anti-immigration views Le Pen espoused in the 2017 French election.

“A court orders a psychiatric assessment for Marine Le Pen,” Salvini wrote. “Words fail me! Solidarity with her and with the French who love freedom!”