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François Fillon was back before the judges Monday, November 15 for his appeal trial on suspicion of fictitious jobs. The former Prime Minister, tried with his wife and his ex-deputy, will have to explain himself again.
For François Fillon, this appeal trial is not just a question of honor or image. The former Prime Minister, who presented himself Monday, November 15 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,” he said.
At his side, his wife Penelope, sentenced to three years in prison, said she “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, the affair had earned the right-wing candidate an indictment and undoubtedly a failure in the election. At the hearing, François Fillon’s lawyer 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.