Marine Le Pen convicted for calling migrant aid association “accomplice of smugglers”

The appeals court has upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction. The leader of the National Rally (RN) had accused Cimade, an association that helps migrants, of organizing “the illegal immigration network from the Comoros” to Mayotte. And the Paris appeals court on Wednesday upheld Marine Le Pen’s suspended fine of 500 euros for defamation against the association.

The RN leader had accused humanitarian associations of being “sometimes” “accomplices of the smugglers”, during an interview broadcast on BFMTV in January 2022. To the question “are humanitarian associations complicit in the crime of entry?”, Marine Le Pen, then a candidate in the April 2022 presidential election, had replied: “Sometimes yes. They are even accomplices of the smugglers, yes, sometimes.”

“The limits of freedom of expression (had) been crossed”

She then directly targeted Cimade, an association committed to fighting xenophobia and the exclusion of immigrants, for its actions in Mayotte. “Cimade actually organizes the illegal immigration network from the Comoros” to Mayotte, she declared. Finally, she pointed out the subsidies paid to associations, calling for an end to paying subsidies “to people who organize something that is illegal.”

At first instance, in October 2023, she was found guilty of public defamation against an individual, the courts finding that the remarks had “exceeded the possible dose of exaggeration in the context in which they were made” and that “the limits of freedom of expression [avaient] “were crossed”.

Marine Le Pen is not done with the justice system. She is due to be tried from 30 September with 26 other people and the RN before the Paris Criminal Court, on suspicion of embezzlement of European public funds.

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