The general prosecutor's office on Monday requested five years of imprisonment, including a firm against François Fillon at the appeal trial of the former Prime Minister for suspicion of fictitious employment of his wife Penelope Fillon.
Apart from this prison sentence, arranged in house arrest with electronic bracelet, the prosecution also asked for a fine of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility.
Against Penelope Fillon, he was asked for two years of suspended prison, 100,000 euros fine and two years of ineligibility, and against his former deputy Marc Joulaud, three years of suspended prison and five years of 'ineligibility.
According to the prosecution, Penelope Fillon was paid "unduly" as parliamentary assistant to her husband and his deputy in the Sarthe, during three contracts between 1998 and 2013, for a total remuneration of 612,000 euros net.
"Intangible" activities
His tasks were “redundant” with those of other collaborators and this job was marked by “confidentiality”, since it was known only to the “inner circle” of the couple, underlined Advocate General Bruno Revel. "Ms. Fillon has never presented herself as the parliamentary collaborator of her husband and of Mr. Joulaud": in the constituency, "everyone ignores (her)!" »He continued, returning to each of the missions that the Franco-Galloise claimed to accomplish at the time.
The "memos" in preparation for local events? "No trace of it has been found." Proofreading speeches, welcoming residents at home, managing mail? So many “intangible” tasks. “Information feedback” from the field? An activity "evanescent, not to say vaporous", insisted the magistrate. "Ms. Fillon was therefore not mistaken in the words when she told the Sunday Telegraph not to have been + her husband's assistant, or something like that," said the Advocate General, referring to a interview with the defendant dating from 2007.
Between 2002 and 2005, Penelope Fillon was hired by the deputy of François Fillon, appointed minister.
"What an extravagant situation that that of a deputy who sees himself imposed a collaborator", quipped Mr. Revel, describing Mr. Joulaud as "the straw man" of Mr. Fillon, an "employer by proxy".
"Use of convenience"
In turn, the second advocate general Yves Micolet described the hiring of Ms. Fillon as a “literary advisor” in 2012-2013 within the Revue des deux mondes as a “job of pure convenience”, “a kind of disguised donation From Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, owner of the publication and close to François Fillon.
If the contracts signed by their two eldest children as a collaborator of their father senator between 2005 and 2007 also fall under a "logic of enrichment", the magistrate however required a partial release and a conviction only for concealment.
At the beginning of the afternoon, Mr. Micolet began the indictment by defending the investigation of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) then the investigation carried out in the middle of the presidential campaign in 2017, responding to criticism of the defense, which asks for the annulment of the entire procedure tainted, according to her, by partiality.
"Putting the PNF on trial is an illusion to try to hide the seriousness of the facts by the defendants," he asserted.
"There was no illegal interference of the judiciary in the presidential election (or) breach of the separation of powers".
The defense of François Fillon must plead in the wake.
At first instance, the former tenant of Matignon was sentenced on June 29, 2020 to five years' imprisonment, two of which was firm, a fine of 375,000 euros and ten years of ineligibility.
Penelope Fillon was given a three-year suspended prison sentence, a € 375,000 fine and two years of ineligibility and Mr. Joulaud, 54, three years suspended, a € 20,000 fine suspended and 5 years ineligibility.