After the MoDem and its leader François Bayrou, the three-time candidate in the French presidential election Marine Le Pen will be tried before the Paris criminal court for suspicion of embezzlement of public funds relating to the assistants of MEPs from her party.
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Three months after the European elections, from September 30 until November 27, Marine Le Pen has an appointment for two months before the Paris Criminal Court, accused of embezzlement of public funds and complicity. Ms. Le Pen has always disputed the accusations in this case.
With 26 other people as well as her political party, the National Rally (RN), as a legal entity, the MP is suspected of having set up, between 2004 and 2016, a system of remuneration byEuropean Union assistants to MEPs actually working for his party.
Note that the court will decide, on July 3 after the opinion of experts, whether the father and predecessor at the head of the National Front (FN) of the double presidential finalist, Jean-Marie Le Penaged 95 and prosecuted for the same offenses as his daughter, is able to prepare his defense and attend the trial.
“ Mr. Le Pen can no longer move around and his faculties are considerably impaired », His lawyer, Me François Wagner, told the court. If experts confirm these assertions, he should be represented by his daughter Marie-Caroline Le Pen, present at the hearing before the criminal court this Wednesday.
Among the other defendants: the mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot, the former number 2 of the movement Bruno Gollnisch, the current executive vice-president of the Reconquête! Nicolas Bay, the former treasurer of the National Front Wallerand de Saint-Just or the deputy and spokesperson for the National Rally Julien Odoul.
Second trial of this type after that of François Bayrou’s MoDem
The beginnings of this investigation began in March 2015. The European Parliament then announced that it had referred possible irregularities committed by the FN concerning salaries paid to parliamentary assistants to the EU anti-fraud office. Two Parisian financial investigating judges took over at the end of 2016.
Marine Le Pen, who has since handed over the leadership of the RN to Jordan Bardella, was indicted in June 2017 for “ breach of trust ” And ” complicity ”, prosecutions later reclassified as “ embezzlement of public funds “. This concerns in particular whether there has been an implementation of a “ diversion system “.
The magistrates suspect him, and this “ in a concerted and deliberate manner “. In 2018, the European Parliament, a civil party, assessed its damage at 6.8 million euros between 2009 and 2017. In a related aspect, Ms. Le Pen agreed, in July, to reimburse 330,000 euros for two assistants when She was an MEP.
Last July, his lawyer, Me Rodolphe Bosselut, stressed that this payment did not constitute “ in no way an explicit or implicit recognition of the pretensions of the European Parliament “. In Franceas a reminder, the RN list is at the top of voting intentions for the European elections on June 9.
In 2023, the leader of MoDem, François Bayrou, had to answer similar accusations in court. Mr. Bayrou had been relaxed “ for the benefit of the doubt », the Paris prosecutor’s office appealing. Ten executives and elected officials (as well as the party) received suspended prison sentences, fines and ineligibility sentences.
To rereadAssistants to FN MEPs: Marine Le Pen and her party will be tried for embezzlement of public funds