A judge has ordered far-right French politician Marine Le Pen to stand trial for sharing ISIS atrocities over Twitter, which included photographs of beheaded American journalist James Foley and execution videos.
Le Pen was officially charged in February 2018 for disseminating “violent messages that incite terrorism or pornography or seriously harm human dignity” over social media in 2015. She also faces secondary charges for sharing the content in a format that can be viewed by children. Several of her tweets containing graphic images have not been deleted.
“I am being charged for having condemned the horrors of Daesh,” Le Pen said in response to the charges last year. “In other countries this would have earned me a medal.”
Le Pen refused a mental health evaluation last year, which was ordered by a French court. The conclusions of the evaluation would have been used by magistrates to determine if she would go to trial.
The former French presidential candidate could be fined up to nearly $85,000 and punished with three years in jail.
