Court Orders Psychiatric Assessment of Marine Le Pen

The request is connected with a series of images she posted on Twitter showing Daesh executions.

France's National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen took to Twitter to express her anger with the court order.

"I thought I had been through it all: well, no! For denouncing the horrors of Daesh (Isis) with tweets, the "justice system" has referred me for a psychiatric assessment. How far will they go?!" she said.

"This regime is really starting to be frightening," Le Pen added.

Le Pen noted that, contrary to French media reports, the procedure was not customary.

According to a decision made on September 11, which Le Pen posted on Twitter, the purpose of the psychiatric assessment was to answer the question: "Can she [Le Pen] understand the statements and answer the questions." In the list of questions given to the experts, there were eight points, among which were: "whether she acted under the influence of forces or circumstances of force majeure" as well as "is she in a dangerous state from the standpoint of psychiatry or forensic science, and what is the forecast," among others.

The National Assembly (lower house of parliament) of France in November 2017, at the request of the Nanteré Prosecutor's Office, deprived Le Pen of parliamentary immunity in connection with the publication on Twitter. If the French court finds her guilty, the leader of the party may face up to three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros.

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