François Fillon, once a leading contender for the French presidency, returns to court on Tuesday for a third trial over the fake jobs scandal that torpedoed his 2017 campaign. Judges are to review the penalties and damages but not the guilty verdict.
Fillon will appear Tuesday before the Paris appeals court, where judges will rule on compliance with the rules of law and not the merits of the case itself, which relates to a fake jobs scandal involving his wife.
In 2022, the former prime minister was found guilty on appeal of embezzling the French state of more than a million euros, complicity in the misuse of corporate assets, and concealment.
He was sentenced to four years in jail, one of which could be served at home wearing a bracelet, along with a €375,000 fine and a 10-year ban from holding public office.
His British-born wife Penelope, then a local councillor, received a two-year suspended prison sentence, while his former deputy MP for the Sarthe department, Marc Joulaud, was given three years suspended.
Together, the three were ordered to pay approximately €800,000 in damages to the National Assembly.
Fillon turned to the Court of Cassation – France's Supreme Court. In April 2024 it confirmed the guilty verdicts but found that the appeals court had not adequately justified Fillon's prison sentence. It ordered a fresh trial before a court of appeal to redefine the penalties and damages.
The 71-year-old, who is now retired from public life, will appear before the Paris Court of Appeal on Tuesday for a brief hearing.
Earlier this month far-right leader Marine Le Pen was also found guilty of embezzling public funds and her five-year ban on running for public office could knock her out of running in the 2027 presidential race.
Does 'politically dead' Marine Le Pen still have a path to power?
Presidential hopes dashed
The so-called "Penelopegate" scandal broke in January 2017 following revelations from satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné.
Investigators found little evidence that Penelope Fillon had worked as the parliamentary assistant as her husband claimed.
Fillon, prime minister from 2007 to 2012 under right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy, was the conservative Republicans party candidate in the 2017 presidential election.
Former French PM Fillon tops conservative primaries
The scandal brought an abrupt end to his once-promising bid for the presidency after his campaign was dogged by regular protests marked by chanting of "Give back the money".
He was eliminated in the first round, finishing third with 20.01 percent of the vote – an unprecedented defeat for a right-wing candidate since 1958 and the founding of France's Fifth Republic.
The election ushered in Emmanuel Macron, France's youngest-ever president, and marked the beginning of a slump in support for the country's conservatives.
In a separate 2017 case involving the misuse of public funds, Fillon agreed to repay nearly €70,000 linked to the employment of writer and philosopher Maël Renouard, who had helped author one of Fillon’s books. Following the repayment, prosecutors dropped the investigation.
Russia connections
Since his fall from political grace, François Fillon has been working as a financial consultant. Up until February 2022, he was a director of Russia's largest petrochemicals company, Sibur and sat on the board of Russian state state oil company Zarubezhneft.
In March his remarks to a far-right magazine that Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky was "not the irreproachable hero magnified by Europeans," caused unease with the Republicans party, with some key figures distancing themselves.
In that same interview, Fillon also minimised Russia's role in sparking the conflict in Feburary 2022.
