Paris (AFP)
Former FN president Jean-Marie Le Pen was indicted on Friday for "embezzlement of public funds" and "complicity" in the case of the allegedly fictitious jobs of the far-right party in the European Parliament. learned AFP from his lawyers.
The party's co-founder, renamed National Rally (RN), was questioned for over four hours by Parisian investigating judges Claire Thépaut and Dominique Blanc on the jobs of three of his aides, according to his lawyers.
Mr. Le Pen, 91, "is very tired of all this," said Frederic Joachim.
"This is obviously a political and even political affair," he continued, denouncing a "judicial incursion into the legislature".
Already summoned on April 11 in this case, Mr Le Pen, who chaired the front-line party from 1972 to 2011, refused to go to the judges, considering himself still protected by his immunity as MEP. The latter was however lifted by the European Parliament, at the request of the French courts, on 12 March.
The investigating magistrates suspect the RN and its leaders of having set up "in a concerted and deliberate manner" a "system of diversion" of the envelopes allocated by the EU to each deputy to pay parliamentary associates, in order to allow the party to save money on his wages.
The damage was estimated by the European Parliament at almost 7 million euros for the period 2009-2017.
In this case, about twenty indictments were pronounced, including that of Marine Le Pen, president of the RN and daughter of Mr. Le Pen, the former companion of the latter Louis Aliot or the Wallerand party treasurer of Saint-Just, for "embezzlement of public funds" or complicity.
The party has also been indicted in this case.
© 2019 AFP