On the last day of the hearing, the defense fought again for acquittal.
The day before, the general prosecutor requested five years in prison, including one year closed under an electronic bracelet and a 375,000 euros fine against François Fillon, two years suspended prison sentence and 100,000 euros fine against Penelope Fillon and three years suspended against Marc Joulaud.
The announced date of the decision remains, however, subject to uncertainty: the court of appeal must first rule on December 14 on two priority questions of constitutionality (QPC).
If it sends them to the Court of Cassation, the judgment on the merits could be postponed.
Almost a year and a half after their conviction by the criminal court on June 29, 2020, the three defendants had been retried since November 15 for embezzlement of public funds, complicity or concealment of this offense in particular.
In question: three contracts of employment of Penelope Fillon as parliamentary assistant between 1998 and 2013, for a total remuneration of more than 612,000 euros net.
The Fillon couple also appeared for complicity and concealment of abuse of corporate assets, concerning the employment of Ms. Fillon as a "literary advisor" in 2012 and 2013 (135,000 euros gross) at the Revue des deux mondes, owned by billionaire Marc Ladreit of Lacharrière.
François Fillon, whose presidential campaign in 2017 had been undermined by the "Penelopegate", was also to explain the hiring of his two elders as parliamentary assistants when he was a senator between 2005 and 2007, as well as a loan not -declared to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP).
Throughout the trial, the defendants defended, as in the first instance, the reality of the work of Penelope Fillon, a "field" collaborator in Sarthe with an "indispensable" role for the "implantation" of her husband but also of Marc. Joulaud when François Fillon was minister.
Activities considered "impalpable" or even "evanescent" by the prosecution which also called for ineligibility on Monday: 10 years for the former tenant of Matignon, 67 years, two years for Penelope Fillon, 66 years and five years for Marc Joulaud, 54 years old.
The former mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe Marc Joulaud arrives at the Paris courthouse for his appeal trial, November 22, 2021 Thomas COEX AFP / Archives
The penalties required are, however, lighter than those imposed by the court in first instance: Mr. Fillon had in particular been sentenced to two years in prison and his wife to a heavier fine.
© 2021 AFP