Prosecutor seeks jail and election ban for Le Pen

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - PARIS — The Paris prosecutor has asked for a prison sentence of five years and a five-year ban from political office for far-right leader Marine Le Pen in an illegal party funding case.

Nicolas Barret asked for the ban to become effective immediately after the verdict, even if the defense team appeals, ruling Le Pen out of standing again for president in 2027.

She and more than 20 other senior party figures are accused of hiring assistants who worked on party business, rather than for the European Parliament which paid them.

Le Pen, who denies the charges, told reporters the requested sentence was an "outrage", and accused the prosecution of trying to "ruin" her National Rally (RN) party.

"I think the prosecution's wish is to deprive the French people of the ability to vote for whom they want," she said after the hearing in the French capital, where she is on trial with 24 other defendants.

Le Pen was defeated by Emmanual Macron at the last presidential election in 2022 by 58.55% to 41.45% but RN is the biggest among the numerous parties in the National Assembly.

As well as the prison sentence and ban from political office, a fine of €300,000 (£249,000; $319,000) is being sought against the RN leader.

The proposed prison sentence is "convertible" and France's AFP news agency says that Le Pen "would not necessarily go to prison".

However, the ban on political office would take effect immediately and would not be delayed by the appeals process, as some had been expecting.

The prosecutor asked for the ban to apply to all 25 defendants.

"The law applies to all," Mr Barret told the court.

The defendants plus the party itself, as a legal entity, are accused of siphoning EU parliamentary funds to pay the salaries of party workers.

According to the prosecution case, Le Pen presided over a system for several years in which RN staff members from Paris were "taken on" as EU parliamentary assistants in Brussels.

It is being argued in court that these RN officials rarely set foot in the EU parliament and had no role there.

Le Pen has argued that parliamentary assistants paid for by the Brussels assembly were naturally involved in politics because that was what drew them to the job in the first place.

RN chairman Jordan Bardella, who is not a defendant in the case, called the prosecution's demands an "assault on democracy" in a post on X.

"The prosecution is not acting justly," he said. "It is seeking to persecute and take revenge on Marine Le Pen."

A lawyer for the European Parliament, Patrick Maisonneuve, said he was not surprised by the sentence being requested.

"There is a consistency in the prosecution's demands," he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

The trial is due to continue until 27 November. — BBC