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Iran: We Will Not Leave Israel's Criminal Acts Unanswered

Iranians walk next to a poster of late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed with late Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah following an Israeli air strike, in Tehran, Iran, 29 September 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians walk next to a poster of late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed with late Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah following an Israeli air strike, in Tehran, Iran, 29 September 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
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Iran: We Will Not Leave Israel's Criminal Acts Unanswered

Iranians walk next to a poster of late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed with late Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah following an Israeli air strike, in Tehran, Iran, 29 September 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Iranians walk next to a poster of late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed with late Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah following an Israeli air strike, in Tehran, Iran, 29 September 2024. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH

Iran will not leave any of "the criminal acts" of Israel unanswered, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday, referring to the killing of Hezbollah's chief and an Iranian Guard deputy commander in Lebanon.
Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, in which Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also died, Reuters reported.
Israel's intensified attacks against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the Houthi militia in Yemen have prompted fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and the United States, Israel's main ally.
"We stand strongly and we will act in a way that is regretful [for the enemy]" Kanaani told a weekly news conference, adding that Iran does not seek war but is not afraid of it.
Kanaani said that Iran is closely following up on matters with the Lebanese authorities, referring to the strikes that killed Nasrallah and Nilforoushan.

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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)
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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.