Ex-prime minister Fillon heads to court over graft
PARIS: Former prime minister Francois Fillon went on trial in Paris yesterday over claims he embezzled more than €1 million euros (34.2 million baht) in public funds by creating a fake job for his wife, a scandal that cost him his shot at the French presidency in 2017.
Investigators suspect that Mr Fillon, 65, hired his Welsh-born wife Penelope as his parliamentary assistant between 1998 and 2013, without having her do any actual work.
The allegations that Penelope, who is also charged in the case, was paid up to 10,000 euros a month for little to no work buried Mr Fillon’s presidential ambitions and caused his centre-right Republicans party to implode.
With the career politician refusing to stand aside in the 2017 contest even after being charged, many right-wing voters drifted to the centrist party of Emmanuel Macron.
Mr Fillon has denied the allegations and insisted that Penelope — who faces charges including complicity in misuse of public funds — did real work for him in his rural constituency of Sarthe.
But investigators say they have found little documentary evidence of her efforts.
They have also seized on a 2016 newspaper interview in which Penelope declares that “Until now, I have never got involved in my husband’s political life” — echoing a statement she made to Britain’s Sunday Telegraph in 2007.
The Fillons and a third defendant, Marc Joulaud, who stood in for Mr Fillon in parliament when he was a cabinet minister and also hired Penelope as an assistant, face up to 10 years in prison. If found guilty, they may also face a hefty bill — France’s National Assembly has joined the case as a civil party, and said it could seek over one million euros in compensation.
Mr Fillon has already ruled out any return to politics, saying in a prime-time TV interview last month that his priority is to defend his family’s honour.
The allegations were first published in January 2017 by the Canard Enchaine, the satirical weekly newspaper, a few weeks after Mr Fillon won his party’s primary contest.