French authorities on Tuesday, April 9, detained a 76-year-old man over a death threat against the judge who presided over the panel that sentenced far-right leader Marine Le Pen to a ban on running for office, prosecutors said to Agence-France Presse (AFP), confirming a report by the newspaper Le Parisien. The bombshell judgement, which could crush the 56-year-old's dream of winning the French presidency in 2027, has stunned France's political establishment and infuriated many in her Rassemblement National (RN) party. Since the conviction, the judges who handed down the decision have received threats, and the head judge Benedicte de Perthuis is under police protection, including increased patrols and regular rounds around her home.
The public prosecutor's office, speaking to AFP, said, of the man being held: "On his X account, he had posted the following: 'What this bitch deserves,' along with a photograph of a guillotine."
Investigators opened another probe at the start of the year after death threats were posted on a far-right website. The threats were made against one of the judges and two prosecutors after they requested sentences against the defendants including Le Pen at the end of the eight-week trial in November. Five suspects have been identified and will be questioned.
'A frontal attack on judiciary'
Le Pen last week was handed a partly suspended jail term, a fine of €100,000 ($109,000) and a ban on running in elections for five years, effective immediately, after being convicted for a scheme under which the EU Parliament paid assistants who were actually working for her party. The court ruled that Le Pen was at the "heart" of the system of embezzlement of public funds. A total of 24 people have been convicted, in addition to her party.
In his reaction to the judgement, President Emmanuel Macron told members of the government that the French judiciary was "independent" and that "judges must be protected," according to an official present at the meeting last week.
Former justice minister Nicole Belloubet on Tuesday condemned attacks on the French justice system, pointing out that the investigation into the case had lasted for years. She quoted the 19th-century novelist Honore de Balzac's warning: "To distrust the judiciary marks the beginning of the end of society." Making remarks like "the tyranny of judges" is "a frontal attack on the judiciary," Belloubet said. Such public statements "are as inaccurate as they are unacceptable, calling into question the justice system, the concept of the rule of law and even the law itself," she wrote.
RN reactions slam a 'witch hunt'
Rallying her supporters and RN party members at a gathering in Paris on Sunday, Le Pen said the far right was the target of a "witch hunt."
Her top lieutenant and RN president Jordan Bardella, 29, has slammed "the tyranny of judges" but he also said Sunday that the party did not want to "discredit all judges."
The Paris Court of Appeal said it would examine Le Pen's case within a timeframe that could potentially allow her to run in the 2027 polls if her conviction is overturned or her sentence changed. Yet there is no guarantee that the appeals court will overturn the lower-court ruling.