The former Prime Minister and his wife, sentenced respectively to four years in prison, one of which is a farm and two years suspended, will appeal to the cassation.
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François Fillon was sentenced on Monday, May 9, by the Paris Court of Appeal to four years in prison, one year of which was firm – a convertible sentence, in the form of an electronic bracelet for example – for “embezzlement of public funds” , “complicity in abuse of corporate goods”, and “concealment” of these two crimes, as part of the affair of the fictitious jobs of his wife, Penelope Fillon. The latter was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for “complicity in embezzlement of public funds”, “complicity in abuse of corporate goods” and “concealment” of these two crimes. For the second time, justice considered that Penelope Fillon had been remunerated for a job she had not done.
These sentences are almost in accordance with the opinion of the general prosecutor’s office, which had requested, during the appeal trial in November 2021, five years including a farm against him, two years suspended against her. They are lower than those pronounced at first instance, in June 2020: the former Prime Minister had then been sentenced to five years in prison, two of which are farm, his wife at three years suspended.
The decision rendered Monday confirms the other sentences pronounced during the first trial, namely a fine of 375,000 euros for each of the two spouses, and sentences of ten years of ineligibility for him, 68 years old and withdrawn from life Politics since 2017, and five years for her, 66 years and still a municipal councilor in Solesmes, in Sarthe.
Third defendant, Marc Joulaud, 54, deputy for Sarthe between 2002 and 2007 as a substitute by François Fillon, then Minister (2002-2005) then Senator (2005-2007), was sentenced for “misappropriation of Public Fund “at two years in suspended prison sentence, and five years of ineligibility -he is currently municipal councilor of Sablé -sur -Sarthe (Sarthe) -, the same sentence as in the first instance, a fine of 20,000 euros in Less.
a dispute for three contracts
If the penalties of the Fillon couple are lower than those pronounced two years ago, it is that the court of appeal estimated that the crimes had taken place over a smaller period than what the court at first instance.
Three parliamentary assistant contracts of Penelope Fillon were the subject of a dispute: those concluded with François Fillon between 1998 and 2002 – he was then deputy for Sarthe -, then between 2012 and 2013 – he was deputy for Paris -, and that, from 2002 to 2007, concluded with Marc Joulaud. This time, the Fillon spouses were released from the facts concerning the period 1998-2002 “for the benefit of the doubt,” said the president of the court, François Reygrobert, who did not wish to detail the motivation of his decision. In essence, the Court considered that this period was too distant for the requirement of material evidence, and that there was therefore a doubt that the wife of the former Prime Minister could not provide the work corresponding to his remuneration.
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