A man who described himself as “Moroccan” has been sentenced to a year in prison after threatening to behead populist French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.
The man threatened to behead Ms Le Pen and conservative writer and pundit Eric Zemmour on the social media platform TikTok.
“We will all meet inshallah and we will cut off their heads as in the time of the prophet,” the man said referring to Ms Le Pen and Mr Zemmour, adding, according to CNews: “There are heads that will fall. It will make them all funny.”
During the video, the man is said to have claimed to be Moroccan or of Moroccan background and evoked the French colonisation of North Africa.
On Monday, the 30-year-old was brought before the criminal court of Marseille, according to the newspaper Le Figaro, and initially faced up to seven years in prison and a €100,000 (£84,352/$116,184) fine, but received a custodial sentence of just one year.
Marine Le Pen reacted to the man’s threats on Twitter, questioning on Monday: “No investigation to find out in what environment this Islamist evolved?”
Both Ms Le Pen and Mr Zemmour currently vie for second place in the first round of the French presidential election, which would take one of them to the second round to likely face off against incumbent French President Emmanuel Macron.
The pair are both firmly against mass migration, with Le Pen vowing to put forward a referendum on the subject of immigration reform that could have sweeping changes to the French immigration system, such as scrapping birthright citizenship and having asylum applications processed overseas.
Eric Zemmour, meanwhile, has become a major challenger for Le Pen and has eclipsed the National Rally leader in some recent polls.
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