Former French Prime Minister Fillon and his wife of British origin face a false trial

Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, whose candidacy for the 2017 presidential election had been implicated as a result of a false job scandal involving his wife, must be tried for these charges.

The investigating judges recommended that Mr. Fillon be tried for using public money, corporate badets, a conspiracy and failing to fully disclose his financial situation.

His wife Penelope, born in Wales, faces less serious accusations of complicity in the misuse of public funds and conspiracy in order to abuse corporate badets.

"It's the next normal step in the process," said one of Fillon's political allies under the guise of anonymity.

Fillon was widely considered to be on the verge of winning the French presidency before the revelations published by the investigative journal The chained Duck in January 2017, his credibility was broken.

His fall in grace paved the way for centrist Emmanuel Macron to win the elections and dealt a blow to the conservative Fillon. The Republicans political party, one of the pillars of French political life, which he always struggles to recover.

On several items, The chained Duck said she saw pay slips showing that Penelope Fillon had received 680,000 euros as a parliamentary badistant to her husband between 1986 and 2013, but had little or no work at the National Assembly and n & # 39; He had no pbadport to enter the building.

She had also received a monthly salary from a magazine owned by a billionaire friend of the couple, The Revue des Deux Mondesdespite the fact that the publisher has never seen it.

Mr. Fillon also admitted to having taken out an interest-free loan of 50,000 euros from the owner of the magazine, Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, without declaring it to the supervisory body of the public service.

Antonin Levy, a Fillon lawyer, said today that the news of the trial had been leaked to the press before his client was informed.

"Secret cell"
Fillon, who had campaigned as a pair of clean hands, always denied the allegations and accused The chained Duckthe investigators and the government conspired with his political rivals who were exploiting a "secret cell" to make him fall.

The man who had held the post of prime minister of President Nicolas Sarkozy between 2007 and 2012 is ranked third in the first round of voting in April 2017, behind Macron and the far right leader Marine Le Pen.

Discreet political wife who avoided being noticed, Penelope Fillon was famous for being a pbadionate rider who used to describe herself as a simple peasant girl who preferred rural life in Paris.

In reviewing Fillon's insistence that his wife had "always" worked to help her in her career, the French media took into account her previous comments.

Penelope said in several interviews that she had never been involved in her husband's political career.

The case should be judged before the end of the year.