{"id":125743,"date":"2024-11-14T13:00:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T06:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=125743"},"modified":"2024-11-14T13:00:58","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T06:00:58","slug":"prosecutor-seeks-jail-and-election-ban-in-party-funding-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=125743","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor seeks jail and election ban in party funding case"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">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.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Nicolas Barret asked for the ban to become effective immediately after the verdict, even if the defence team appeals, ruling Le Pen out of standing again for president in 2027.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">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.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Le Pen, who denies the charges, told reporters the requested sentence was an &#8220;outrage&#8221;, and accused the prosecution of trying to &#8220;ruin&#8221; her National Rally (RN) party.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;I think the prosecution&#8217;s wish is to deprive the French people of the ability to vote for whom they want,&#8221; she said after the hearing in the French capital, where she is on trial with 24 other defendants.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\"><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-61209058\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">Le Pen was defeated by Emmanual Macron<!-- --><\/a> 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.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">As well as the prison sentence and ban from political office, a fine of \u20ac300,000 (\u00a3249,000; $319,000) is being sought against the RN leader.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The proposed prison sentence is &#8220;convertible&#8221; and France&#8217;s AFP news agency says that Le Pen &#8220;would not necessarily go to prison&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">However, the ban on political office would take effect immediately and would not be delayed by the appeals process, as some had been expecting.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The prosecutor asked for the ban to apply to all 25 defendants. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;The law applies to all,&#8221; Mr Barret told the court.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The defendants plus the party itself, as a legal entity, are <!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c749g91yk8vo\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">accused of syphoning EU parliamentary funds <!-- --><\/a>to pay the salaries of party workers.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">According to the prosecution case, Le Pen presided over a system for several years in which RN staff members from Paris were &#8220;taken on&#8221; as EU parliamentary assistants in Brussels.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">It is being argued in court that these RN officials rarely set foot in the EU parliament and had no role there.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">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. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">RN chairman Jordan Bardella, who is not a defendant in the case, called the prosecution&#8217;s demands an &#8220;assault on democracy&#8221; in a post on X.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;The prosecution is not acting justly,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is seeking to persecute and take revenge on Marine Le Pen.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">A lawyer for the European Parliament, Patrick Maisonneuve, said he was not surprised by the sentence being requested. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;There is a consistency in the prosecution&#8217;s demands,&#8221; he was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The trial is due to continue until 27 November.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cvg0q711vl2o\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=125743\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=125743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=125743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=125743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}