The Paris prosecutor’s office has requested a trial for the National Rally and 27 people linked to the party, including Marine Le Pen and her father, suspected of having participated in a system of embezzlement of European public funds between 2004 and 2016. -he indicated Friday.
The prosecution requests that the main figure of the RN (former National Front) be tried by the criminal court for embezzlement of public funds and complicity.
Marine Le Pen has always contested any infringement in this matter.
In detail, the prosecution is requesting a trial for 11 people who were elected MEPs on National Front lists, 12 people who were their parliamentary assistants, but also four collaborators from the far-right party.
In this long list bringing together the vast majority of party figures from the mid-2010s include the mayor of Perpignan Louis Aliot, the former number 2 of the party Bruno Gollnisch, the executive vice-president of Reconquête! Nicolas Bay, the former treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just or the deputy and spokesperson for the RN Julien Odoul.
For the National Rally, taken as a legal entity, the prosecution is requesting a trial for complicity and concealment of embezzlement of public funds, over the entire period covered.
The prosecution emphasizes that “the penalties incurred are ten years of imprisonment, and a fine of maximum 1 million euros or double the proceeds of the offense”, and recalls the possibility of imposing an additional penalty of ineligibility of a maximum of ten years.
The investigation began in March 2015, when the European Parliament announced that it had referred possible irregularities committed by the National Front (since renamed RN) to the EU anti-fraud office concerning salaries paid to parliamentary assistants.
The investigations were then entrusted at the end of 2016 to two Parisian financial investigating judges.
Marine Le Pen was indicted in June 2017 for “breach of trust” and “complicity”, charges later reclassified as “embezzlement of public funds”.
The magistrates suspect the RN of having “concertedly and deliberately” put in place a “system of embezzlement” of the envelopes (21,000 euros per month) allocated by the European Union to each deputy to pay parliamentary assistants.
The latter would in reality have worked all or part for the RN, thus allowing it substantial salary savings.
The European Parliament, the civil party, estimated its damage in 2018 at 6.8 million euros for the years 2009 to 2017.
gd-jpa-clw-mk/pa/hj
22/09/2023 16:18:04 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP