Former French prime minister François Fillon has lost his final legal appeal over a fake jobs scandal that destroyed his 2017 presidential run.
Europe’s top human rights court rejected Fillon’s efforts on Thursday to overturn his conviction for misusing public funds. Judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said his claim that he did not receive a fair trial was “manifestly ill-founded”.
The ruling closes a case that once reshaped French politics. Fillon had been favourite to become president in 2017 until allegations emerged that he paid his wife, Penelope, for a fictional job as his parliamentary assistant.
The scandal cost him support and he finished third in the first round with 20 percent of the vote. It was the first time a mainstream right-wing candidate had missed the runoff in the Fifth Republic.
French ex-PM Fillon given suspended prison sentence over wife's fake job
Final ruling
Fillon was definitively convicted by the Paris Court of Appeal in June. He received a four-year suspended prison sentence for misusing public funds. He also received a 375,000-euro fine and a five-year ban from holding public office.
That sentence was slightly lighter than the one imposed in 2022, when the same court had handed him four years of prison time, including one year that could have been spent behind bars, along with a 10-year ban from office.
In August 2024, Fillon took his case to the ECHR. The appeal also covered his wife and his former parliamentary stand-in Marc Joulaud. All three argued that French courts did not give them a fair trial.
They based their complaint on Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to a fair trial. They said the judges were not independent and raised concerns about pressure from prosecutors and the way magistrates are appointed in France.
But Strasbourg judges ruled that the trial was fair. They dismissed the complaint and rejected any claim that the judges lacked impartiality.
Fillon also argued under Article 7 of the Convention, which bars punishment without law, saying the offence of misappropriating public funds should not apply to members of parliament.
The court noted that he had not raised that point before French judges and refused the argument.
France's ex-prime minister Fillon back in court over fake jobs scandal
Political fallout
The revelations arrived at a decisive moment. Fillon had campaigned as a clean, experienced leader who would fix France’s finances. Instead, his reputation collapsed.
The case also carries some irony. During the 2017 campaign, Fillon sharply criticised the Strasbourg court.
“The ECHR increasingly meddles in social issues that shape our identity, we can’t accept that”, he said at a rally after judges ruled that France had violated the rights of children born via surrogacy abroad.
Fillon has since withdrawn from frontline politics. He now works in the private sector and has not commented publicly on Thursday’s ruling.
The fallout from corruption investigations has not been limited to Fillon. His former boss Nicolas Sarkozy has also turned to the same court.
Sarkozy is serving a sentence at Paris’s Santé prison following a conviction linked to alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign.
He has lodged an appeal with the ECHR after being sentenced last year for corruption and influence-peddling in the wiretaps affair.
The Strasbourg decision appears likely to bring Fillon’s long legal fight to an end.
(with newswires)
