Le Pen judge placed under police protection after receiving ‘personal threats’

Police patrols have been placed outside the home of Bénédicte de Perthuis, the judge who sentenced French far-right leader Marine Le Pen to four years in prison on Monday, the French foreign ministry said Tuesday.

According to French media, the magistrate had received “a large number of messages containing clearly expressed personal threats.”

De Perthuis presided over the three-judge panel that handed down the controversial judgment against Le Pen following a trial for misappropriating funds from the European Parliament.

On Monday, the far-right leader was sentenced to four years in prison, with two years suspended. The remaining two years can be served under house arrest. Additionally, she was fined €100,000 and barred from running in elections for the next five years.

Following the conviction, Le Pen’s allies across Europe, and on the other side of the Atlantic,  denounced the court’s decision as undemocratic, with United States President Donald Trump calling the ruling “a very big deal.”

Speaking on French television Monday evening, Le Pen said de Perthuis made a “political decision” and violated the law.

French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin defended the magistrates on Monday. “The threats made against the magistrates of the Paris Judicial Court are unacceptable in a democracy and worrying for the independence of the judicial authority,” he said.

Speaking on French radio RTL on Tuesday morning, Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation Rémy Heitz echoed these words.

“What is unacceptable in this case … are the very personalized attacks and threats against magistrates,” he said. “One cannot, in a state of law, in a democracy, directly attack judges and threaten them,” he added.