Three and a half years after the opening of an investigation targeting the Fillon spouses, after suspicions of fictitious jobs which emerged in the middle of the presidential campaign in January 2017, the Paris criminal court must render its verdict Monday June 29 at 1:30 p.m. (the trial was held between February 24 and March 11).
François and Penelope Fillon would incur
up to ten years in prison and a 1 million euro fine. But in March, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) requested five years in prison, two of which close for François Fillon (as well as 375,000 euros fine) and three years suspended sentence (plus 375,000 euros fine also) against his wife Penelope.
In this file, Marc Joulaud is also targeted. He is the former substitute for François Fillon in Sarthe and employed Penelope Fillon as parliamentary attaché between 2002 and 2007. Except that The chained Duck, at the origin of this whole affair, did not find no record of Penelope Fillon’s work, and that in addition Jeanne Robinson-Behre, former parliamentary assistant to Marc Joulaud, confirmed that she had never worked with her.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) required two years suspended prison sentence against Marc Joulaud, as well as a 20,000 euro fine.
Towards a reopening of the Fillon trial?
Normally, the verdict must therefore fall on Monday. But of new twists pushed Camp Fillon to demand the reopening of the trial. Éliane Houlette, former patron of the PNF, spoke on June 10 in a parliamentary committee about “very tight control” that the Public Prosecutor’s Office would have exercised in 2017, to speed up the procedure, and the “very heavy pressure” that she suffered. Monday, June 29, the court will therefore have no choice but to first respond to this request to reopen trial before rendering judgment.
