French fraud trial opens for ex-prime minister Fillon

PARIS－Former prime minister Francois Fillon goes on trial in Paris on Monday over claims he embezzled more than $1 billion in public funds by creating a fake job for his wife, a scandal that cost him his shot at the French presidency in 2017.

Investigators suspect that Fillon, 65, hired his Welsh-born wife Penelope as his parliamentary assistant between 1998 and 2013, without having her do any actual work.

The allegations that Penelope, who is also charged in the case, was paid up to 10,000 euros ($10,800) a month for little to no work buried Fillon's presidential ambitions and caused his center-right Republicans party to implode.

With the career politician refusing to stand aside in the 2017 contest even after being charged, many right-wing voters drifted to the centrist party of Emmanuel Macron.

Fillon has denied the allegations and insisted that Penelope－who faces charges including complicity in misuse of public funds－did real work for him in his rural constituency of Sarthe.

Fillon said in an interview last month that his wife had been his most important employee and that her work for him would be proven at trial.

"She managed my constituency diary and my mail, and edited the speeches I was making," he told public broadcaster France 2.

But investigators say they have found little documentary evidence of her efforts.

They have also seized on a 2016 newspaper interview in which Penelope declares that "Until now, I have never got involved in my husband's political life"－echoing a statement she made to Britain's Sunday Telegraph in 2007.

When the scandal broke, Fillon denounced what he called a campaign of dirty tricks and denied having done anything illegal, though he admitted an error of judgment. He told France 2 he may have made mistakes.

"I surely committed errors but there is something that I will not accept, and that is that people think that I am dishonest or that I sought to con the French people," he said.

The Fillons and a third defendant, Marc Joulaud, who stood in for Fillon in parliament when he was a cabinet minister and also hired Penelope as an assistant, face up to 10 years in prison.

If found guilty, they may also face a hefty bill－France's National Assembly has joined the case as a civil party, and said it could seek over one million euros in compensation.