BRUSSELS: 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 yesterday.
“The European Parliament will vote on 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 on 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 favoured lifting her immunity with only one vote against.
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.
ICC to try Kenyan
vice president
THE HAGUE: Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto will go on trial for crimes against humanity in September in connection with deadly post-election violence in 2007-08, the International Criminal Court said yesterday. “The trial chamber decided to set the opening on September 10 in order to allow the defence sufficient time to carry out its preparations,” The Hague-based ICC said in a statement. Ruto, 46, faces three counts of crimes against humanity for his role in deadly violence that erupted in Kenya after elections in late 2007.
Agencies
