“I challenge this judgment,” said François Fillon, back in court

For François Fillon, this appeal trial is not just a question of honor or image. THE’ex-prime minister, who introduced himself monday 15 November as a pensioner, was sentenced at first instance in 2020, to five years’ imprisonment, including two years, for embezzlement of public funds. He immediately appealed. It was on this point that he was first questioned at the bar, during the afternoon. “I challenge this judgment”, did he declare.

Beside him, his wife Penelope, sentenced to three years in prison, said she was “felt despised, even humiliated”. “I would like to convince you of everything I have done”, she added. The whole stake of the trial, for the defense, and to demonstrate that it really worked. Triggered in the middle of the 2017 presidential campaign after an article in the Canard Enchaîné, had earned the right-wing candidate an indictment and undoubtedly a failure in the election. At the hearing, counsel for Francois Fillon denounced a prosecution, a line of defense that has not changed since the first trial. The former Prime Minister is due to speak Tuesday before the magistrates.