why the conviction is upheld, with a brand new trial to find out the sentence | EUROtoday

A brand new trial will happen within the François and Penelope Fillon affair nevertheless it won’t actually resemble the one which the previous prime minister of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) hoped for. In its judgment rendered on Wednesday April 24, the legal chamber of the Court of Cassation definitively confirmed the guilt of the previous deputy for Sarthe and Paris, his spouse, in addition to his deputy within the National Assembly between 2002 and 2007, Marc Joulaud, for notably “embezzlement of public funds” and “complicity in abuse of corporate assets” within the case of the fictional employment of Penelope Fillon as parliamentary assistant to her husband and Mr. Joulaud.

If the convictions on attraction of M^me Fillon (two years suspended jail sentence, 375,000 euros fantastic and two years of ineligibility whereas she remains to be a municipal councilor in Solesmes, in Sarthe) and Mr. Joulaud (three years suspended jail sentence and 5 years of ineligibility) had been confirmed by the Court of Cassation, a brand new listening to might be held earlier than the Court of Appeal regarding solely the sentences handed down towards François Fillon and the quantity (126,167 euros) of damages that the Fillon couple should pay to the National Assembly.

Sentenced on attraction in May 2022 to 4 years of imprisonment, together with one yr, a fantastic of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility, François Fillon, 70, appealed to the Court of Cassation so as to get hold of a excessive jurisdiction, which ensures compliance with the principles of legislation, the holding of a 3rd trial earlier than the Court of Appeal.

Recent victory

In the eyes of Mr. Fillon's defenders, this state of affairs of a brand new listening to on the deserves was potential because the victory gained, on September 28, 2023, by the previous head of presidency earlier than the Constitutional Council. As a part of a precedence query of constitutionality filed by Mr. Fillon, its members repealed a provision of the code of legal process beneath which the events can now not elevate nullities (i.e. defects of process) taken from parts subsequent to the order of referral to the legal court docket after the conclusion of a legal investigation.

During his attraction trial in 2021, Mr. Fillon tried in useless to have the legal proceedings towards him annulled by elevating grounds for nullity. To do that, he relied on the resounding declarations of the previous boss of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), Eliane Houlette, in June 2020, earlier than the parliamentary fee of inquiry of the National Assembly on the independence of the judicial authority.

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