Former Prime Minister François Fillon was sentenced Monday on appeal to four years in prison, including one year, a fine of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility in the case of the fictitious jobs of his wife Penelope Fillon. At the announcement, all appealed in cassation.
In this file which had exploded in the middle of the presidential campaign of the right-wing candidate in 2017, the wife of François Fillon Pénélope was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 375,000 euros, his former deputy Marc Joulaud three years of suspended prison sentence.
Ineligibility sentences of two and five years were also pronounced against them. The couple and the former deputy were finally ordered to pay around 800,000 euros to the National Assembly, a civil party. The defendants, who were absent when the decision was pronounced at the start of the afternoon at the Paris Court of Appeal, have the possibility of appealing in cassation. The prison sentence imposed on Mr. Fillon can be adjusted: if he does not appeal, he will be summoned before a sentence enforcement judge who can decide, for example, whether to wear an electronic bracelet.
At first instance, the former tenant of Matignon between 2007 and 2012 had been sentenced to five years in prison
These convictions for embezzlement of public funds, complicity in the misuse of corporate assets and concealment of these two offenses in particular, are lighter than those pronounced at first instance, on June 29, 2020. The Court of Appeal indeed released the Fillon spouses concerning the first of three disputed contracts as parliamentary assistant to Penelope Fillon, between 1998 and 2002, “for the benefit of the doubt”.
The appeal court, on the other hand, confirmed the guilt of the defendants concerning the contract between Ms. Fillon and Marc Joulaud between 2002 and 2007, as well as for the contract between the spouses in 2012-2013. Similarly, the Franco-Welshwoman’s “literary advisor” contract at the Revue des deux mondes was deemed “fictitious”.
At first instance, the former tenant of Matignon between 2007 and 2012 had been sentenced to five years in prison, including two firm, 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility. His wife had been sentenced to three years in prison, suspended, 375,000 euros fine and two years of ineligibility, when Mr. Joulaud had received the same prison sentence accompanied by a 20,000 euros fine and five years of ineligibility.
Former Prime Minister François Fillon, sentenced Monday on appeal to four in prison, including one year in prison in the case of suspicion of fictitious jobs for his wife Penelope Fillon, will appeal to the Court of Cassation, his lawyers announced in a press release.
Ms. Fillon, as well as Mr. Fillon’s former deputy, Marc Joulaud, sentenced respectively to two and three years in prison, suspended, will also appeal to the highest court of the judiciary.