France’s ex-PM Fillon gets two-year term in fake job scandal

PARIS: A Paris court on Monday sentenced French former prime minister Francois Fillon to five years in prison, three suspended, for orchestrating a fake job for his wife in a scandal that cost him his shot at the presidency in 2017.

Fillon’s wife Penelope was given a suspended three-year sentence for participating in the scheme that saw her paid over € 1 mn in public funds over a 15-year period.

Fillon and his wife were also ordered to pay fines of €375,000 ($423,000) each.