French court calls sale of Nicolas Sarkozy voodoo doll 'freedom of expression'

London, November 29 : Voodoo dolls of President Nicolas Sarkozy will continue to sell with as a French appeals court has allowed them to stay on the market in the name of the freedom of expression.

The court, however, has directed the doll's marketer to add a warning saying that pricking them harms the president's dignity.

Lawyers representing Sarkozy wanted publishing house K andB Editions, the doll's marketer, to withdraw them from sale. Their contention was that the president owned the right to his own image just like any French person.

However, backed an earlier ruling, the court allowed the dolls to stay on the market.

It directed K andB Editions to add a warning that using the needles, which come with the kits, "constitutes an attack on the personal dignity of Mr Sarkozy," reports the Telegraph.

'Nicolas Sarkozy: The Voodoo Manual' includes a handbook and 12 pins. The blue-coloured doll shows Sarkozy's face on a body covered with some of his most famous one-liners, including "get lost, you sad git" - his now infamous remark to a detractor at Paris' agricultural fair.

The word "scum", which Sarkozy used to describe suburban delinquents, is placed on the doll's groin.

A similar doll of Socialist Segolene Royal, who lost to Sarkozy in last year's presidential elections, is also available in the market. She, however, did not sue the publishing house.

ANI