Marine Le Pen suggests French hostages had Homeland-style radicalisation

Far-Right leader Marine Le Pen has sparked outrage by hinting that four French hostages who were kidnapped by Islamic militants may have radicalised because they returned home with “strange” beards. Thierry Dol, Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand and Marc Féret were given a heroes’ welcome when they returned to France on Wednesday after a three year ordeal at the hands of al Qaeda-linked militants in Africa’s desert Sahel region. President François Hollande personally greeted the four men, kidnapped in Niger in 2010, as they arrived at Villacoublay military airfield near Paris. Visibly uneasy with the intense media attention, none of the four men wanted to speak after Mr Hollande addressed journalists on the tarmac. Given this, Miss Le Pen struck a different tone by appearing to imply that she feared the men may have become radicalised by their captors while in Africa. The Front National leader, known for her virulent campaigns against immigration and the “Islamisation” of France said their appearance was “troubling”. When asked to elaborate, she added: “They seemed to be images of men who were very reserved, two with beards cut in an astonishing manner, the clothing was strange. And the hostage with the scarf on his face ... All this requires some explanation on their part.” The theory is reminiscent of the plot of the US TV series Homeland, the hit US series starring Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison, a CIA officer, and Damian Lewis as Nicholas Brody, a United States Marine Corps Scout Sniper. The first series hinges on Mathison’s suspicions that Brody, who was held captive by al-Qaeda as a prisoner of war, was “turned” by the enemy. Miss Le Pen was asked if the men might have been Islamicised during their three-year hostage ordeal. “I’m not a psychiatrist,” she replied. “I am expressing the feelings I had, which I think were shared by a lot of the French public. I wouldn’t go so far as to offer a theory, it wouldn’t be my place.” “However it is not forbidden to think that they might be victims of the Stockholm syndrome,” Miss Le Pen later told Le Figaro newspaper. Her comments quickly sparked criticism and mockery on social media. “Marine le Pen had just finished a marathon of £Homeland,” tweeted @n-manth. “Marine le Pen thought the hostages were going to step off the plane with a three piece suit and a bow tie,” wrote @Cheikouuu. “Coming soon in the £FN programme: a political hairiness police”. The governing Socialist party accused her of exploiting the hostages’ return to make a “shameful and unpatriotic” slur. “Miss Le Pen is so blinded by her hatred of Muslims that she can’t even join the rest of the nation in rejoicing at the release of our hostages,” party spokesman Eduardo Rihan Cypel told iTele. Jean-François Copé, head of the conservative UMP opposition party, said the remarks were “deeply shocking”. “This is the real face of the Front National and Marine Le Pen,” he said. In a front page article, Le Monde said Miss Le Pen's "spectacular slip-up" risked "scrambling (her) message and strategy as she goes out of her way to appear a credible and responsible politician". The mother of one of the former captives, Pierre Legrand, said the four men had simply agreed to keep their beards and scarves in a gesture of solidarity with other French hostages still held in the region. With controversy mounting, Miss Le Pen later said she regretted her “clumsy” remarks, and that she had only meant to criticise their “exploitation” by the French and Niger governments. “I expressed myself extremely clumsily,” she told RTL radio. “I have no criticism of the hostages and of course I am extremely happy that they have been freed.” The four Frenchmen were abducted by al-Qaida’s northern African branch, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, in 2010, while they were working in Arlit, Niger, where the French nuclear giant Areva operates a uranium mine. They were rescued in northern Mali, where French troops have been fighting off an Islamist insurgency led by several rebel groups including AQIM. They were reportedly retrieved in a desert area near the border with Mauritania and Algeria by a team of 18 Frenchmen and Tuaregs. The French government said their release was brokered by Niger’s president Mahamadou Issoufou. They deny any ranson was paid, but sources close to the operation claimed France paid up to 25 million euros (£21.5 million) for their release.