"They have made clientelism a mode of governance," had castigated the prosecution on April 7.
The Marseille Criminal Court sentenced Senator Jean-Noël Guérini, ex-strongman of Bouches-du-Rhône, to three years in prison, including 18 months closed, and his entrepreneur brother Alexandre, to six years in prison.
They were accused of patronage practices in a case which had shaken the Socialist Party.
The prosecution had required four years of imprisonment, two of which were firm, a fine of 70,000 euros and a five-year ineligibility against the elected representative, aged 70. Against his younger brother Alexandre, entrepreneur in waste management and central figure in the trial, the prosecutor asked for a heavier sentence: eight years firm with a committal warrant and a fine of 500,000 euros.
