Poison pen writer targets UMP

Bullets and death threats are being sent out from a post office in the Lozère department of Languedoc-Roussillon.

A POISON-PEN letter writer has been sending bullets to senior figures in the ruling UMP Party, accompanied by death threats.

Justice Minister Rachida Dati, Interior Minister Michèle Alliot-Marie, Culture Minister Christine Albanel and President Sarkozy have all received chilling letters from the poison-pen writer – known as un corbeau (crow) in French.

The letters include statements like: “You think you can do what you like with our lives, well, you’re wrong, it’s us who can do what we like with yours, and those of your families and friends” or “purveyors of liberty-killing laws… you are living on borrowed time.”

The mayor of Bordeaux, Alain Juppé, was the last to receive such a letter, accompanied by a revolver bullet, this week, following a sequence which started last month at the Elysée. The mayor of la Canourgue (Lozère), Jacques Blanc, who is a former Languedoc-Roussillon region president, has also been targeted.

Investigations so far have shown all the letters were sent from the same post office, in the Hérault (Languedoc-Roussillon).

An Elysée spokesman downplayed the incidents. “We regularly receive disagreeable or threatening letters, which are evaluated by the protection group for the presidency of the Republic and passed on to the justice system if necessary.”

Photo: Medef