Former French prime minister François Fillon will learn on Monday whether an appeals court has upheld his conviction for setting up his wife with lucrative fake jobs.
Revelations about the investigation torpedoed the conservative Filan’s 2017 presidential campaign, clearing the way for centrist Emmanuel Macron – re-elected to a second term last month.
The 68-year-old was convicted by the trial court in 2020 and sentenced to five years in prison, of which three were suspended.
In November’s appeal hearing, prosecutors said there was clear evidence that Filon and his stand-in as MP for the Sarthe Department, Marc Julaud, had “appeared” Philone’s wife, Penelope, as a parliamentary assistant between 1998 and ” intangible” or “weak” role. 2013.
On top of jail time and fines, Fillons and Joulaud were ordered to pay more than $1,055,000 in 2020 to the lower house of France’s National Assembly.
The court also barred Fillon from holding public office for 10 years, while Penelope – a serving local councillor – was banned for two years.
Penelope also had a job as a “literary consultant” at the Revue des Deux Mondes magazine owned by Marc Ladreit de Lachariere, which was described by prosecutors as an “indulgence” for her friend Philon.
Ladreit de Lacharriere pleaded guilty in a 2018 trial in which he admitted the job was partly fake.
Prosecutors have called for Fillon to face harsher sentences still in the appeal hearing, which include five years in prison and a $395,000 fine for misappropriation of public funds, collusion and concealment of misappropriation of company assets.
They also want a suspended sentence of two years and a $105,000 fine for Penelope Fillon.
Before the appeals court, the Filons were adamant in their defense that Penelope’s “on-the-ground” work in Sarthe was “immaterial” but too “real”.
His lawyers attacked the “media frenzy” around “Penelopegate”, as it was dubbed when the scandal broke out.
Both are not expected to appear in court on Monday.
Since withdrawing from politics, Filon has served on the boards of Russian petrochemicals giant Sibur and hydrocarbon firm Zrubezneft.
He has left both positions since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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