Judge orders Marine Le Pen to undergo psychiatric evaluation
Paris prosecutors said on Friday (22/09) that French ultraright leader Marine Le Pen and 23 other members of her party should be tried for misuse of European Union resources, suggesting that the investigation has lasted almost seven years have taken years, are in court, have reached a new level.
Prosecutors launched the investigation in December 2016 with the aim of investigating whether the party, then called the Front National, had used money intended to pay European Parliament advisers to finance employees of the farright party in France .
Vacancies for advisory positions in EU legislation were not filled, although the ultraright received money to finance these functions and passed them on to party officials.
Le Pen and her supporters have been prosecuted for embezzlement of public funds and collusion and accused of using European Parliament funds to pay members of the party currently called the National Rally (RN). They deny all allegations.
Prosecutors allege that since 2004, Front National lawmakers, including Le Pen and her father JeanMarie Le Pen, cofounder of the party, have benefited from the sham employment scheme. They claim that a total of 6.8 million euros were embezzled between 2009 and 2017.
The public prosecutor’s office requested the opening of proceedings against eleven MEPs, twelve parliamentary assistants and four other party employees. The ultraright party itself is being put on trial for allegedly covering up the irregularities.
The penalties for the charge are up to ten years in prison and fines that can reach twice the amount allegedly embezzled.
Possible suspension
If convicted, Le Pen could be banned for up to 10 years, making impossible her plans to run for president of France again in 2027.
The ultraright renounced its mandate as an MEP in 2017 after being elected to the National Assembly. Le Pen ran for president of France in two elections, 2017 and 2022, losing both times to current President Emmanuel Macron.
Le Pen’s lawyer said she agreed to return the amounts she received as part of the alleged fraud to the European Parliament after starting an administrative procedure to recover the money.
According to calculations by the European AntiFraud Office, the rightwing populist owed 339,000 euros for illegal payments to her chief of staff Catherine Griset and her bodyguard Thierry Legier.
She reportedly paid almost 330,000 euros in July, but according to her lawyer, “this in no way represents an explicit or implicit acknowledgment of the European Parliament’s allegations.”
She had previously refused to pay the amount, which led to the European Parliament withholding her payments in the final months of her term as an MEP.
In another case, the European AntiFraud Office estimates that around 600,000 euros in expenses claimed by Le Pen and three other MPs were used to finance the party’s activities in France.