PARIS - A doll representing President Nicolas Sarkozy and an accompanying "voodoo manual" with directions for sticking pins into the figurine can remain on sale after a ruling from an appeals court.
The doll, on sale since October, is adorned with a choice of Mr Sarkozy's best-known remarks, including this admonition to a heckler: "Get lost you pathetic arsehole!" It comes with pins and with instructions for sticking them into the doll.
The court ruled yesterday that the doll and the accompanying volume, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Voodoo Manual, constituted an "offence against the personal dignity" of Mr Sarkozy. However, it said it would be "disproportionate and harmful to liberty of expression" to ban their sale. Instead, it said that the doll may be sold provided it carried a notice of the judgment attached to it. It ordered the manufacturers to pay Mr Sarkozy €2,000 in costs and all other costs of the case as well as a symbolic €1 in damages. - (Reuters)