Court says sales of Sarkozy dolls OK, stabbing isn’t

PARIS – A French appeals court said voodoo dolls of President Nicolas Sarkozy may remain on sale but must carry a notice saying that pricking them harms the president’s dignity.

Sarkozy’s attorney had asked that the dolls be withdrawn from sale, saying the president, like any French person, owns the right to his own image.

The appeals court backed an earlier ruling allowing the dolls to stay on the market in the name of freedom of expression.

But it ordered the doll’s marketer, publishing house K&B Editions, to add a warning that using the needles which come with the kits “constitutes an attack on the personal dignity of Mr. Sarkozy.”