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– At the request of the defense, the trial is postponed until April 29, 2025.
The Paris Court of Appeal has decided to postpone the trial of François Fillon until April 29, 2025, intended to re-examine the sanctions imposed on him in the case of the fictitious jobs of his wife, Penelope Fillon. This dismissal follows the hospitalization of one of the lawyers. Definitively found guilty last April by the Court of Cassation, François Fillon, 70 years old, will have to see his prison sentences, fines and ineligibility re-evaluated during this new hearing. This affair, which broke out in January 2017 after revelations from Le Canard chainé, brought an abrupt end to his presidential campaign.
On May 9, 2022, during his appeal trial, the former head of government was sentenced to four years of imprisonmentof which one year closed, 375,000 euros fine and ten years of ineligibility for embezzlement of public funds. Penelope Fillon, his wife, received a two-year suspended prison sentence, a fine of 375,000 euros and two years of ineligibility. Their former deputy, Marc Joulaud, was sentenced to three years in prison and five years of ineligibility. All three were also ordered to pay approximately 800,000 euros in damages in the National Assembly.
François Fillon ready to “give back the money”: an agreement worth 700,000 euros in sight
If the Court of Cassation confirmed the sanctions targeting Penelope Fillon and Marc Joulaud, it ruled that the one-year sentence imposed on François Fillon was not sufficiently justified. She also reduced the damages linked to Penelope Fillon's parliamentary assistant contract in 2012-2013, recognizing that certain tasks had been accomplished. A look back at this affair, a symbol of the debates on integrity in politics and continues to mark the public sphere.
The revelations of “Chained Duck” in 2017
On January 25, 2017, The Chained Duck reveals that Penelope Fillon, wife of the presidential election candidate who was at the top of voting intentions at the time, would have benefited from a fictitious job for several years. She would have been paid “500,000 euros gross» between 1998 and 2007 as parliamentary attaché to her husband, then to the latter's deputy, Marc Joulaud.
In addition to this sum, Penelope Fillon would also have received 100,000 euros for the position of literary advisor at the Revue des deux Mondesa magazine directed by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, a friend of the candidate in the electoral campaign. The latter was sentenced at the end of 2018 to eight months in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros for having awarded a partially fictitious job to Penelope Fillon.
Opening of an investigation by the national financial prosecutor's office
In January 2017, the national financial prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation for “embezzlement of public funds, misuse of corporate assets and concealment of these crimes.” For his part, François Fillon rejects any accusation and says he hopes that the opening of this investigation will make it possible to “silence a campaign of slander”. On the set of the TF1 newspaper, on January 26, 2017, he revealed that while he was still a senator, that he was “managed to pay two of (his) children, who were lawyers, for pressure missions because of their skills.” François Fillon announces that he will withdraw his candidacy if he is indicted.
Searches took place at the National Assembly and the Senate on January 31 and February 3. The Chained Duck reveals that the amount Penelope Fillon received as part of her activities for her husband and his deputy ultimately climbs to 831,440 euros gross. On February 24, 2017, the national financial prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation for embezzlement of public funds, misuse of corporate assets and concealment, influence peddling and failures to report obligations to the High Authority on the transparency of public life. François Fillon then fell in the polls and moved to third position in voting intentions. On April 23, the former Prime Minister was eliminated in the first round of the presidential election.
“I have not been a shadow MP concerned primarily with money”
Convicted of “embezzlement of public funds”
A first trial opened in February 2020. On June 29, François Fillon and his wife were found guilty. The first is sentenced to five years in prison, two of which are closed, a fine of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility. Penelope Fillon receives a three-year suspended prison sentence, a fine of 275,000 euros and two years of ineligibility. As for Marc Joulaud, he was sentenced to three years in prison, a fine of 20,000 euros and five years of ineligibility.
All three are ordered to repay more than one million euros to the National Assembly for “embezzlement of public funds”. “I was not a shadow MP concerned mainly with money”defended the former Prime Minister, regretting “forty years of commitment erased by an article in a satirical newspaper and an incriminating investigation”. “My wife worked alongside me, that’s indisputable”he certified. The three defendants appealed the decision.
On May 9, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal finally sentenced the Sarthois to four years in prison, including one year, a fine of 375,000 euros and 10 years of ineligibility. Penelope Fillon's sentence is reduced to 2 years in prison, a fine of 375,000 euros and 2 years of ineligibility. Marc Joulaud was sentenced to three years in prison and 5 years of ineligibility. The amount to be paid to the National Assembly is reduced to 800,000 euros. All three then announced their intention to appeal to the Supreme Court in order to study “the attack on the separation of powers, the unfair conduct of this procedure or even the acquisition of prescription”their lawyers told AFP.
