French Far-Right Leader Le Pen Stands Trial over Alleged Misuse of EU Funds

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)
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French Far-Right Leader Le Pen Stands Trial over Alleged Misuse of EU Funds

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters at the Elysee Palace after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Aug. 26, 2024 in Paris. (AP)

Marine Le Pen, the longtime leader of France's far-right National Rally (RN) party, will stand trial in a Paris criminal court on Monday alongside 26 others over alleged misappropriation of European Union funds.

Coming almost a decade after initial investigations started, the trial presents Le Pen with an opportunity to clear herself of accusations she has always denied as she keeps polishing the party's image in a bid to make it fit for government.

However, it also carries the risk of casting the spotlight on the RN's recurring troubles with the law.

Party officials and employees, former lawmakers and parliamentary assistants are accused of using money destined for EU parliamentary work to pay staff who were working for the RN, which at the time was called the National Front.

EU lawmakers are allocated funds to cover expenses, including their assistants, but are not meant to use them to cross-fund party activities.

Many European political parties - especially smaller ones eligible for less national funding - have used EU money to hire promising talent as aides to EU lawmakers.

Current RN party head Jordan Bardella, who is also a member of the European Parliament, used to work in such an assistant role. He is not part of the trial.

Le Pen's party, which sits with the main group of euro-sceptic and nationalist parties in the European Parliament and argues for "France first" policies on issues ranging from immigration, energy markets and agriculture, denies the charges.

CHARGES

Marine Le Pen is facing charges both for her role as party leader and as an EU lawmaker who hired allegedly fictitious assistants herself.

Prosecutors say another of the defendants, Thierry Legier, had really worked as a bodyguard to Le Pen and her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, while receiving a salary as a parliamentary assistant between 2005 and 2012.

RN lawmaker and party spokesman Laurent Jacobelli told Reuters last week that Marine Le Pen was not worried about the trial.

"She knows that what we are accused of is having a different understanding, as a French party, of what an assistant role is, compared with the European Parliament's understanding," he said.

If found guilty, Le Pen and other defendants could face a potential jail sentence of up to 10 years, a one million euro ($1.12 million) fine, and be barred for up to five years from public office.

Le Pen has lost twice to Emmanuel Macron in the second round of France’s presidential elections, in 2017 and 2022, and is widely seen as a frontrunner in the next one in 2027.

The Paris public prosecutor's office opened a probe in 2016, prompted by a 2015 report from the European Parliament president to the French justice minister, followed by a police investigation.

Investigators looked at the situation of 49 RN parliamentary assistants over the past three European Parliament terms. They charged 11 RN members of the EU assembly, including Marine Le Pen and her father, for misappropriation of EU funds, and charged 13 parliamentary assistants with receiving the funds.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, 96, will not attend the trial for health reasons.

The trial will last until November 27.

The RN is under another preliminary investigation, launched in July by the Paris prosecutor's office, into alleged illegal financing of its 2022 presidential campaign.



Pakistan Military Court Jails 25 over 2023 Attacks

Supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan hold his posters during a gathering by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to observe Martyrs' Day to honor those who allegedly died during last month's protest, in Peshawar on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Abdul MAJEED / AFP)
Supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan hold his posters during a gathering by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to observe Martyrs' Day to honor those who allegedly died during last month's protest, in Peshawar on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Abdul MAJEED / AFP)
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Pakistan Military Court Jails 25 over 2023 Attacks

Supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan hold his posters during a gathering by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to observe Martyrs' Day to honor those who allegedly died during last month's protest, in Peshawar on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Abdul MAJEED / AFP)
Supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan hold his posters during a gathering by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to observe Martyrs' Day to honor those who allegedly died during last month's protest, in Peshawar on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Abdul MAJEED / AFP)

Twenty-five civilians were sentenced by a Pakistani military court to periods of two to 10 years of "rigorous imprisonment" in connection with attacks on military facilities in 2023, the armed forces' media wing said on Saturday.
The ruling underscores concerns among supporters of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan that military courts are going to play a bigger role in cases involving the 72-year-old, who is facing multiple charges including allegedly inciting attacks against the armed forces.
Thousands of Khan supporters stormed military installations and torched a general's house on May 9, 2023 to protest against the former premier's arrest by paramilitary soldiers. At least eight people were killed in the violence.
The military's Inter-Services Public Relations office said the sentences handed down on Saturday were an "important milestone in dispensation of justice to the nation,” Reuters reported.
"It is also a stark reminder to all those who are exploited by the vested interests and fall prey to their political propaganda and intoxicating lies, to never take law in own hands," it added in a statement.
Others charged over the violence were being tried in anti-terrorism courts but justice would only be fully served "once the mastermind and planners ... are punished as per the Constitution and laws of the land," the military said.
The ruling comes days after Khan was indicted by an anti-terrorism court on charges of inciting attacks against the military. An army general who served under him as his spy chief, Faiz Hamid, is facing a military investigation on the same charges.
Pakistan's Supreme Court last week allowed military courts to announce verdicts in concluded trials of nearly 85 supporters of Khan on charges of attacking army installations, however it made such verdicts conditional on the outcome of appeals against the jurisdiction of military courts over civilians.
The court last year provisionally allowed military courts to try civilians.