No let up as French candidates face legal probes

PARIS: France’s presidential frontrunners Francois Fillon and farright leader Marine Le Pen can expect no pause in legal investigations targeting them ahead of elections in April, the justice minister said.

The independence and neutrality of the justice system is under scrutiny ahead of a two-stage presidential election only nine weeks away amid several high-profile probes into Fillon and Le Pen.

Both are accused of misusing public money by using fake parliamentary aides, while Le Pen faces a separate investigation into the funding of election campaigns in 2014 and 2015.

They deny wrong-doing and have sought to portray the investigations as politically-motivated attacks which should be delayed or abandoned altogether.

“Imagine that during the presidential campaign you can’t investigate?” Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.

He said that in the past judges had sometimes taken into account the electoral calendar when fixing trial dates, but that judicial investigations had never been put on ice. “There is no law allowing a suspension like that. What would be the reason? In the name of what exception? In my opinion, nothing could justify it,” he said.

He again denied accusations that Socialist President Francois Hollande was behind the investigations as has been alleged by Fillon, whose campaign has been thrown into turmoil by the case.

“To imagine that investigations could have been ordered on Fillon or Marine Le Pen is completely absurd because it’s illegal,” he added.

Polls currently show anti-EU, anti-immigrant Le Pen winning the first round of the two-stage election on April 23, with either Fillon or centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron coming second.

In a run-off vote on May 7 between the top two candidates, Le Pen would lose to both of her rivals if the vote were held today, polls show.