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François Fillon and his wife, Penelope Fillon, April 9, 2017 during the French presidential campaign REUTERS / Benoit Tessier

More than two years after the opening of an investigation that led to the fall of François Fillon, the investigating judges ordered a trial for him and his wife Penelope, caught up by the suspicions of fictitious jobs that she would have benefited from .

The judges order a trial for former Prime Minister François Fillon and his wife. The candidate of the right to the presidential election of 2017 is sued in court for the crimes of " misappropriation of public funds ", " concealment of embezzlement of public funds ", " abuse of social property " and " failure to comply with the reporting obligations of the Haute Authority for the transparency of public life ". His wife, who was paid as a collaborator, is being prosecuted for " complicity and concealment of misappropriation of public funds " and " concealment of misuse of corporate assets ".

Friday, April 19, the investigating judges signed their order of reference and nothing is now opposed to a trial in correctional, trial that could take place at the end of the year or early 2020. A reference consistent with the requisitions of the prosecutor's office .

The investigators estimated that Penelope Fillon, from the beginning of the 1980s to 2013, spent around one million euros for jobs supposedly occupied in the National Assembly, as well as in La Revue des deux mondes as a " consultant ". literary ".

The pieces sent by the Fillon couple «show nothing», according to the judges

During the investigation, the spouses handed to the court pieces supposed to prove the reality of the work provided. But the judges quoted by the daily Le Monde note that " intended to mass, to convince the reality of the work of parliamentary collaborator Penelope Fillon, these documents did not show anything ".

The defense of the spouses was further weakened by the choice of the owner of the Revue des deux mondes , the businessman Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, to plead guilty. The latter was sentenced in December to eight months suspended sentence and a fine of 375,000 euros.

On the bench of the defendants, they will therefore be three: François Fillon, now retired from politics, his wife and Marc Joulaud, former deputy of the deputy of Sarthe .

►To read also: Fillon Affairs: a political-media drama in five acts