Le Pen has in the past spoken admiringly of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his rhetoric, France 24 reports. In 2023, a French parliamentary report said she served as a mouthpiece for the Kremlin, supporting Russia's annexation of Crimea, which violated international law in Europe established after WWII. She also opposed Ukraine's accession to both NATO and the EU.
The verdict includes a two-year suspended prison sentence and an additional two years of house arrest with an electronic monitoring bracelet. It also disqualifies Le Pen from running for the European Parliament or holding any public office for five years.
Alongside Le Pen, eight other Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were found guilty of misappropriating funds in the case involving parliamentary assistants of the National Rally.
Twelve aides tried alongside them were also convicted of possessing stolen goods. The total damages in the case were estimated at €2.9 million, as the European Parliament paid for individuals who were actually working for the far-right party.
The Guardian quotes Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis, who confirmed that "all these people were actually working for the party, that their (EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks."
"The investigations also showed that these were not administrative errors ... but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party’s costs," the judge stated.The ban on running for office is to take immediate effect. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen left the courtroom before the verdict was fully read.
Read more:
- Ukraine’s mad scientists marry Soviet R-73 with Western missiles in hybrid air defense system
- Ukraine’s NASAMS air defense systems destroy 900 Russian aerial targets with 94% success rate
- Forbes: Sweden, Lithuania, and Ireland send Ukraine a highly mobile air defense system that needs only three soldiers
