France's Far-right Leader Le Pen Gets Jail for Defrauding EU

A French court has imposed a jail sentence on far-right leader Marine Le Pen and barred her from seeking public office after it found her guilty of embezzling European Union funds, Al Jazeera reported.
 

The Paris court ruled on Monday that Le Pen used more than 3 million euros ($3.3m) of European Parliament funds to pay members of her National Rally (RN) party.
 

In the sentencing, the chief judge announced that the nationalist politician would not be allowed to run for office for five years, effective immediately. A four-year jail sentence was also imposed, with two years suspended and the remaining two to be served using an electronic tag rather than in custody.
 

Le Pen was also ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 euros ($108,000), while RN was issued with a 2-million-euro ($2.16m) fine.
 

“The court took into consideration, in addition to the risk of reoffending, the major disturbance of public order if a person already convicted … was a candidate in the presidential election,” said presiding Judge Benedicte de Perthuis.
 

The ruling threatens to push Le Pen out of the 2027 presidential race, in which she is currently the frontrunner, according to opinion polls.
 

The nationalist leader said the court’s decision was “political” and aimed to block her from the next election. Speaking to French TV channel TF1 in her first reaction to the verdict, Le Pen said that millions of French people “are outraged,” adding that the ruling was a violation of the rule of law.