The decision came : François Fillon and his wife Penelope were convicted Monday, June 29, in Paris, in the case of suspicions of 'ghost' employees who had poisoned the presidential campaign of the candidate of the right in 2017. The former Prime minister was sentenced to five years in jail, including two farm. The magistrates ' court had attached to this sentence – non-transformable – of a fine of 375 000 euros and ten years of ineligibility. The judges did not issue a mandate to deposit. His wife bailer, to three years in prison suspended sentence and a 375 000 euro fine and two years of ineligibility.
The hopes of the defense of a reopening of the case after the declarations of the former boss of the PNF Éliane Houlette on "pressures" procedural of its hierarchy during this survey sensitive were quickly showered by the tribunal, which rejected his request in the beginning of the hearing.
The couple are appealing
Francis and Penelope Fillon have immediately announced their intention to appeal. "This decision, which is not fair, is going to be appealed, [...] there will be a new trial ", announced to the press Antonin Levy, the attorney of François Fillon. A decision confirmed by the lawyer of Penelope Fillon, Pierre Cornut-Gentille, who has denounced a sentence of " severe ".
Marc Joulaud, the former deputy François Fillon in the Sarthe, which had also been used fraudulently Penelope Fillon as assistant parliamentarian, has been sentenced to three years suspended prison sentence, € 20 000 fine, suspended sentence and five years of ineligibility. The three defendants have also been ordered to repay more than a million euros to the national Assembly for these " diversion of public funds ".
contracts without The "no consistency"
For the court, the contracts of assistant parliamentary Penelope Fillon with her husband, and then of Marc Joulaud, between 1998 and 2013, had "no consistency" and sub to " no need ". François Fillon, who had defended the reality of the work of his wife, did " not question ", stressed by the president Nathalie Gavarino, describing the behavior of the former Prime minister of "breach not only of its duty of probity, but also to that of exemplarity" as a parliamentarian.
The husband Fillon are also condemned for jobs that are fictitious, in 2006 and in 2007, their two older children Mary and Charles, hired as assistants to their father when he was a senator. The couple was also found guilty of complicity and concealment of abuse of social goods, for the employment dummy of Mrs Fillon to The Review of two worlds, a title in the hands of a friend of François Fillon. The former Prime minister has, however, been acquitted for failing to report a loan of 50 000 euros in 2012.
Favorite presidential
Given favorite for the presidential election, the voice of the conservative right had eventually been eliminated in the first round, after a campaign undermined by this case as revealed by The Canard enchaîné. At 66 years of age, François Fillon, now retired from politics, was converted into finance. On 10 march, the PNF had denounced the "profound sense of impunity" of those who had " done to the integrity of a brand ".
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Between 1998 and 2013, Penelope FIllon has collected a total of 613 000 euros in respect of contracts known only to some close friends. The Fillon, whose lawyers have argued the charge, have described tasks, admittedly mostly oral (be the "eyes and ears" of the deputy, "giver of orders" for the mail that arrived at their mansion sarthois...), but indispensable, according to them, the career of the politician.
These activities, as Penelope Fillon has struggled to describe precisely, however, remain difficult to define, made as a wife or to assist the Fillon mp or minister, with or without a contract of an associate parliamentary... To the prosecution, the all is "more of the social roles of a spouse of an elected official," that a real job of parliamentary assistant, which is thus " fictional ". François Fillon has, on the contrary, sought to explain that the work of collaborating is much more varied when it is the spouse, a practice now prohibited.
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