The site, coco.fr, was shut down in June after being linked to more than 23,000 sexual abuse and other cases in France alone, including the rape trial that shocked the country last year.

France on Thursday charged the founder of an adult website used to commit sexual offences, including by a French man who recruited dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, prosecutors said.

The founder of the website Dominique Pelicot used to recruit dozens of men to rape his unconscious wife has been charged by French police. Isaac Steidl, a native of France who now has Italian citizenship,

For years, the far-right National Rally tried to distance itself from Mr. Le Pen’s racist and antisemitic remarks. But after his death Tuesday, it hailed him as a visionary.

The co-founder of France's main postwar far-right movement Jean-Marie Le Pen divided the country even beyond the grave on Wednesday, with the government slamming street celebrations that took place in some French cities after his death.

French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, center, flanked by his daughter Marine Le Pen, and Bruno Gollnisch, arrives for a wreath-laying ceremony at the statue of Joan of Arc, within the party's traditional May Day march Saturday May 1, 2010, in Paris. Credit: AP/Jacques Brinon