- Penelope Fillon is accused of having allegedly fictitious employment as a parliamentary collaborator when her husband, François, was a member of parliament.
- They must be tried, from Monday, for "embezzlement of public funds". They face a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.
- Civil party to this trial, the National Assembly intends to claim 1.081 million euros in damages at the hearing.
The hearing will only open in five days but the National Assembly has already done its accounts. Civil party to the trial of the Fillon spouses which is due to open on Monday in Paris, the institution has planned to claim precisely 1,081,219.51 euros in damages during the hearing, according to our information. Considering that François Fillon, then his deputy Marc Joulaud, diverted money from their parliamentary envelope to pay Penelope Fillon when she was not really working, the parliamentary assembly planned to request the reimbursement of salaries unduly perceived in his eyes between 1998 and 2013.
#Fillon: Civil party, the National Assembly will claim 1,081,219.51 euros in damages during the trial of the Fillon spouses and Marc Joulaud which opens Monday in the so-called “Penelope Gate” case
- Vincent Vantighem (@vvantighem) February 19, 2020In detail, and according to our information, the National Assembly intends to claim jointly 401,230.19 euros from Penelope and François Fillon and 679,989.32 from Penelope Fillon and Marc Joulaud, the substitute for François Fillon, accused of having perpetuated his system when he was in government. "These are funds that can be described as '' public '', explains a source familiar with the matter. The problem is not that François Fillon hired his wife. It is not that it is a family job. The problem is that this job did not correspond to anything, was not real… ”
The previous Alain Marsaud
It is not the first time that the National Assembly has embarked on such an approach. In December 2018, the former deputy (LR), Alain Marsaud, was sentenced to a suspended prison year and three years of ineligibility for having employed his daughter who occupied a fictitious position of parliamentary collaborator. During this appearance in prior recognition of guilt, the former deputy was also ordered to pay the Palais-Bourbon the exact amount of wages unduly paid to his daughter, ie 204,777 euros in damages.
In this kind of file, "it is the President of the National Assembly who decides whether or not to follow the recommendations of the lawyer for the Assembly", does one explain to the questioning of the institution which defends itself of any political aim in this kind of case. According to her, the perch arbitration has nothing to do with the political color of the majority or that of the parliamentarian being prosecuted. "The principle is to protect the interests of the National Assembly", we continue to question. Including financial interests.
François Fillon is no longer in "the plot"
Entangled in this affair during the presidential campaign, François Fillon had been eliminated in the first round of the election. He had left the public scene on April 23, 2017, promising to one day deliver evidence of the political “plot” of which he believed he had been the subject. "When the time comes, the truth of this election will be written," he promised. But on France 2, on January 30, he finally indicated that he was no longer "in this".
During his time on the show Have the Speech , he maintained that his wife Penelope had been an important collaborator during his career as a Member of Parliament. Like Marc Joulaud, they face a sentence of ten years in prison and a million euros fine for "embezzlement of public funds". Their trial is scheduled to last until March 11.
Justice
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Politics
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- Justice
- National Assembly
- Fictitious job
- François Fillon
- Penelope Fillon