EPA | On Monday, a French court condemned the leader of the extreme right, Marine Le Pen, on charges of embezzling the European Union’s funds, and sentenced her to 4 years in prison, including two suspended executions, in addition to preventing her from running for elections for a period of 5 years with an immediate impact, in the development of the political scene in France upside down.
The court also ruled a fine of Le Pen at a value of 100,000 euros, and the party also fined two million euros, of which one million euros were implemented.
Le Pen, the leader of the right -wing National Rally Party, is widely, the most fortunate candidate in opinion polls before the 2027 elections.
The prosecution had immediately asked Le Pen from taking over public positions for a period of five years if convicted, regardless of any appeal procedures, using the so -called “temporary execution”.
Automatic ban for five years will be severely damaged by Planban, who was 56 years old, who has already nominated three times for the presidency, which said that the year 2027 would be the last nominated for the presidential position. She will keep her parliamentary seat until the end of her mandate.
French judge, Benedict de Breyots, issued a ruling of conviction, and considered that Le Pen was the focus of the party’s regime to use the European Union’s funds to pay the salaries of its employees residing in France.
She said: “Since 2009, Marine Le Pen has placed herself at the heart of this system, which was founded by her father, in which she participated since 2004, with full force and determination.”
The court condemned Le Pen and eight other people, who were then deputies in the European Union, and 12 parliamentary assistants, on charges of embezzling the European Union’s funds. The defendants were not accused of embezzling the funds, but rather using the European Union’s money in favor of their party.
Le Pen, who, upon her arrival at the court, accused the public prosecutor, of seeking to “kill her politically”, claiming a conspiracy to prevent her party from reaching power, which mimics the claims of US President Donald Trump regarding his legal problems.
De Pythois said that the investigations into the case “showed that these were not administrative mistakes … but embezzlement in the framework of a system that was placed to reduce the party’s costs.”
The court estimated that the total amounts concerned amounted to 2.9 million euros, because the European Parliament “covered the costs of people who were actually working for the right -wing extremist party.”
The judge said: “They fell on fake contracts, and there was clearly a regime within the party,” explaining that “these people have been proven that they were actually working for the party, and that their (European) deputy did not assign them any tasks,” and that they were “moving from one deputy to another.”
She added: “Let’s be clear: No one is tried for his involvement in politics; this is not the important thing. The question is: Did the contracts be implemented or not?”
Le Pen, who sat in the front row in court, was sometimes shaken by lightly from right to the left as she listens to the judge.
The defendants said that the funds were used legally, and that the prosecution provided a narrow definition of what the parliamentary assistant does.
