Prosecutors Want Le Pen Imprisoned, Banned from Running for Office

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On Wednesday, French prosecutors demanded right-wing leader Marine Le Pen receive a jail sentence and be banned from public office for five years over charges she embezzled European Parliament funds.

What is striking is that wherever the right wins elections or starts to take the lead in some ‘democratic countries,’ the leader gets hit with campaign finance violations. What a coincidence.

They’re Trying to Ban 25 People From Office

The prosecution made the request in a Paris court. Le Pen and other defendants from her National Rally party are on trial for creating fake jobs at the EU parliament. She denies the charges.

The National Rally party and 25 of its officials, including Le Pen, are accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to instead pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called the National Front at the time.

The nine-week trial is scheduled to finish Nov. 27, with a verdict at a later date. Defense lawyers are to speak in the next couple of weeks.

Le Pen did not show any emotion in the courtroom as she listened to the prosecutors’ demands.

“It’s no surprise,” she told reporters. “I note that the prosecutors’ claims are extremely outrageous.”

Le Pen said she felt prosecutors were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president in 2027. “I understood that well,” she said.

Prosecutor Louise Neyton said the judicial investigation has shown that the alleged fraudulent acts “are unprecedented because of their scope, duration and because of their organized, automatic and systemic nature.” She denounced “the serious and lasting damage these facts and this behavior have caused to the democratic game.”

The ban would exclude the 56-year-old from running in France’s 2027 presidential election if granted by the court.

The prosecution demanded the ban be effective immediately, even if the defense team appeals. They want her imprisoned for two years.

She is leading in all the polls.

In France, you are guilty until proven innocent.


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