The court of appeal "confirmed the judgment of first instance with regard to the guilt of the persons concerned on the count of defamation of a civil servant", a judicial source told AFP on Thursday.

The court of appeal, however, reversed the initial judgment as to the sentences imposed, condemning the director of the publication and the journalist author of the article to a fine of 500 euros each, against 1,000 at first instance, indicated the same source.

In 2021, the elected socialist had won a first legal battle against the journalist and the magazine who accused her of having benefited from a "fictitious job" between March 2001 and April 2002.

The court then found that the journalist had "exceeded the permissible limits of freedom of expression" by relying on "rumours" and his "personal conviction".

The case dated back to October 2017, when Capital magazine published an article claiming to provide "evidence" that Anne Hidalgo would have benefited from this fictitious job.

According to the magazine, she had continued to receive her salary as chief labor inspector, paid by the Ministry of Labor, when she became a Paris councilor in March 2001 then first assistant to Bertrand Delanoë.

Between her election in March 2001 and April 2002, Ms. Hidalgo remained a labor inspector.

Her salary continued to be paid to her because she was then made available by her administration to work in the office of the Minister of Justice Marylise Lebranchu, for which she was technical adviser and then project manager.

According to the author of the survey, Anne Hidalgo had little or no presence at the Ministry of Justice.

At first instance, the court found that the journalist did not seem "to have sought to find out from the people who worked with Anne Hidalgo within the Ministry of Justice what the reality of his activity might have been".

© 2022 AFP