Family’s outrage forces Le Pen to take down picture of murdered reporter

French far right leader Marine Le Pen has been forced to delete a photograph of the decapitated body of reporter James Foley from her Twitter account. She faced an angry backlash after posting the image of the murdered American, who was beheaded by Islamic State militants. The National Front leader, who was using the image to rebut claims her party was like IS, said: "I did not know it was a photograph of James Foley. It can be accessed by anyone on Google. I learned this morning that his family has asked for it to be removed and of course I took it down immediately.“

To tweet it again just continues to promote their propaganda - the horrible way they recruit others who want to be brutal. I certainly do not want that to continue.

James Foley’s mother, Diane

Le Pen posted the image and two others after a leading French academic compared NF to Islamic State, saying both were exclusionist. She used the pictures with the caption "This is #Daesh”. But James Foley’s mother Diane said the tweets added “to the family’s pain” over the killing of her son in 2014 following his kidnap in Syria in 2012. In a statement, his family called for all three images to be taken down. France interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused Ms Le Pen of fomenting IS propaganda and the French authorities are now investigating her tweets.

We are deeply disturbed by the unsolicited use of Jim for Le Pen’s political gain and hope that the picture of our son, along with two other graphic photographs, are taken down immediately.

James Foley family statement

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