the trial of the former prime minister in the fictitious jobs affair postponed to April 29, 2025

The trial of François Fillon, during which his sanctions in the case of his wife's fictitious employment must be re-examined, was postponed, Monday, November 25, to April 29 by the Paris Court of Appeal, due to the absence of a lawyer, hospitalized. The former prime minister, aged 70, was found definitively guilty by the Court of Cassation in April, but it ordered a new hearing to reassess his prison sentences, fine and ineligibility in this case resounding, which had thwarted his leading race for the 2017 presidential election.

On appeal, on May 9, 2022, the former tenant of Matignon was sentenced to four years of imprisonment, including one year, a fine of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility for embezzlement of public funds. His wife, Penelope Fillon, was sentenced to two years in prison, as well as a fine of 375,000 euros, and his ex-deputy, Marc Joulaud, was sentenced to three years in prison, with respective ineligibility. two and five years old. The three defendants were also ordered to pay a total of approximately 800,000 euros in damages to the National Assembly.

The Court of Cassation confirmed the sentences of the 69-year-old Franco-Welsh woman and the 57-year-old former deputy for Sarthe. On the other hand, the high court, which controls compliance with the rules of law and not the merits of the cases, considered that the Paris Court of Appeal had not sufficiently justified the firm part of the sentence imposed on François Fillon. Furthermore, the Court ruled that the amount of 126,167 euros, awarded to the National Assembly in damages for Penelope Fillon's parliamentary assistant contract with her husband in 2012-2013, had been incorrectly assessed, in to the extent that the court of appeal had recognized that M^me Fillon had still carried out certain tasks. Other damages are definitely owed by the Fillon couple.

The affair broke out in January 2017 with the revelations of Chained duckwhile François Fillon was a candidate of the right and the center in the presidential election. Herald of integrity, he was indicted and finally eliminated in the first round.