On Tuesday a French court sentenced a former member of the ultra-right party Front National to nine months in prison without the possibility of parole and banned her from participating in politics for five years. On her microblog, Anne-Sophie Leclère compared French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira to a monkey.
The court in the town of Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, Taubira’s birthplace, also fined Leclère EUR 50 000. The Front National has also been fined EUR 30 000.
The party stripped Leclère of her membership last December for her mistakes. The 33-year-old defended herself by claiming that the photo montage of the minister with a monkey "had nothing to do with racism" and had just been a joke.
Leclère also added that she was not the author of the image, which she soon removed from her Facebook page. Justice Minister Taubira was targeted by several racist attacks last year, as well as attacks over the fact that she supported introducing same-sex marriage.
