EU lawmakers back lifting Marine Le Pen's immunity over tweets

Marine Le Pen (C), French National Front (FN) political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, kisses visitors as she visits the International Agricultural Show in Paris, France, February 28, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union lawmakers "overwhelmingly" voted to lift the EU parliamentary immunity of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence, an EU lawmaker told Reuters on Tuesday. MEPs in the legal affairs committee of the European legislature "overwhelmingly voted to lift Le Pen's immunity," lawmaker said Laura Ferrara, who is in charge of the dossier. The committee's vote has to be confirmed by the whole legislature. Ferrara said no date has been decided yet for the vote in the plenary. (Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, editing by Larry King)