Former Front National supporter spared jail after smuggling Iranian lover to UK

A Frenchwoman who helped her Iranian boyfriend sneak into Britain by boat was found guilty Tuesday of illegally assisting migrants but spared punishment after arguing she acted out of love.

Beatrice Huret, 44, told AFP she was "relieved" by the ruling of a court near the port of Calais, where she met her Iranian lover while volunteering at the since-razed Jungle migrant camp.

Ms Huret, a former supporter of the far-Right Front National party, had faced up to 10 years in jail if convicted of helping Mokhtar - whom she met while volunteering at the "Jungle" migrant camp in Calais - slip out of France under cover of night, on a rickety boat.

She is one of several people around France to have been charged with illegally assisting migrants in recent months. While none of them have been imprisoned, a farmer was recently hit with a 3,000 euro (£2,650) fine.

Arriving at the courthouse in the town of Boulogne-sur-Mer, near Calais, she said she hoped the trial would help others "understand what I did and why I did it" and said she took "full responsibility" for her actions.

"I am prepared to give up my life for him. The only thing that would bother me is that I would no longer be able to see Mokhtar if I'm in jail," Ms Huret, who has a 19-year-old son, said.

Ms Huret's life was transformed in February 2015 when she gave a lift to a young Sudanese migrant travelling to the makeshift Jungle camp where thousands of people hoping to stow away on trucks bound for Britain were living in tents and shacks.

"It was a shock to see all these people wading around in the mud," said Ms Huret, whose husband - a border police officer - died of cancer in 2010.

She began volunteering at the camp and a year later met 37-year-old Mokhtar, who was among a group of Iranians who sewed their mouths shut in protest over the demolition of part of the camp in March 2016.

"It was love at first sight," Ms Huret told AFP in an interview earlier this month.

After a failed bid by Mokhtar to hide in the back of a lorry, she helped him acquire a small boat and towed it to a beach from where he and two other Iranians crossed to England on June 11, 2016.

Mokhtar, who is living in Sheffield, has since received asylum.

Ms Huret went on to write a book about their romance, "Calais Mon Amour", for which several film-makers are vying to acquire the rights.

She is one of several people to appear in court in recent months charged with illegally assisting migrants from Africa and the Middle East who travel through Europe after crossing the Mediterranean in flimsy boats or stowing away in trucks travelling overland via Turkey.

Since demolishing the Jungle camp in October, French authorities have taken a stern line on illegal migration, accusing activists who provide assistance to homeless foreigners of creating a "pull" effect.