PARIS — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday to intervene in her domestic legal troubles and demand that France lift her five-year ban on running for public office.
Le Pen said in a statement that she was appealing to the court — an institution which, until 2021, she argued France should no longer be a part of — for help because of the “risk of serious and irreparable harm to her rights and those of voters that would result from her inability to stand in the upcoming elections.”
Le Pen was in March found guilty of embezzling funds from the European Parliament and sentenced to an immediate five-year ban on running for public office, effectively knocking her out of the next presidential election unless an appeals court rules in her favor next summer. Le Pen continues to deny any wrongdoing.
In France, punishments are usually temporarily lifted if the defendant appeals, but the judges in Le Pen’s case took the unusual but not unprecedented decision to immediately enact her sentence regardless of an appeal due to what they considered to be the gravity of the case and the risk of recidivism.
In her statement, Le Pen argued she’s been left without proper legal recourse to challenge her election ban given that French President Emmanuel Macron once again has the ability to dissolve parliament. Were he to do so, Le Pen would be unable to run for reelection.
Le Pen also maintained that her ban violates several principles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including presumption of innocence, the right to have a sentence reviewed by a higher tribunal and the right of voters to freely choose their representatives.
Le Pen had announced her plans to bring the case before the ECHR shortly after being sentenced.
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