Marine Le Pen and 26 other members of the National Rally Party will appear before a correctional tribunal in the case of creating allegedly fictitious jobs for assistants to European deputies from Le Pen’s party, BFMTV reported.
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Two judges, at the request of the prosecutor’s office, decided on Friday to try 27 people from the National Rally party. The Paris prosecutor’s office reported this to the TV channel. The party, however, stated that “no offenses were committed.”
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“We officially reject the charges brought against our MEPs and parliamentary assistants,” the party told the TV channel, pointing out that the hearing will allow them to put forward their evidence and arguments.
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The investigation involves 27 people, including Marine Le Pen and her father, the founder of the renamed National Front party Jean-Marie Le Pen – former European deputies and their assistants.
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Prosecutors are demanding that the main defendants be tried in a Paris correctional court on charges of “misuse of public funds” of the European Union between 2004 and 2016. The hearing also calls for charges against the mayor of Perpignan, Louis Allot, and Le Pen’s right-hand man, Bruno Gollnisch.
They are accused of using European Parliament funds to pay for the work of assistants who actually worked only for the National Rally party.
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As reported by Agence France-Presse, Le Pen’s circle considered such a demand “wrong” in relation to opposition deputies, noting that it “strangely fell during the pre-election period.”
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Earlier it was reported that the former president of the far-right National Rally party, Marine Le Pen, paid the 330 thousand euros required by the European Parliament as part of an investigation into the allegedly fictitious employment of two of her assistants.