France: Le Pen defends anti-Muslim remarks as she appears in court

The leader of the Front National Marine Le Pen appeared in court in Lyon, Tuesday, facing charges of inciting racial hatred for comparing Muslims praying in the street with the Nazi occupation during a rally in 2010. Before the session started, Marine Le Pen defended her comments and said she was confident her case would be dismissed. She went on to brand the associations that brought her to the court as "bounty hunters acting on orders of those in power." She also stated that she "came here to defend the right of criticise behaviours that are completely illegal, contrary to secularism, contrary to the values of the French Republic." Marine Le Pen assumed the leadership of the far-right Front National in 2011, a position that was previously in the hands of her father and party founder Jean-Marie. One year earlier, in 2010, Marine spoke during a rally in Lyon, comparing the street prayers outside the mosques with the occupation of France by Nazi Germany between 1940 and 1944. It is for this speech that she is currently facing trial in Lyon.