France: Ex-Presidential Candidate’s Graft Trial Delayed

Published: 24 February 2020

By Sandrine Gagné-Acoulon

The embezzlement trial of former French presidential candidate Francois Fillon and his wife Peneloppe that was to start on Monday has been postponed because of a lawyers strike.

  The lawyers used the high-profile hearing to draw attention to their stalled pension talks with the government by blocking the entrance to the Paris court on Monday morning.

Authorities removed the lawyers from the entrance but the judge still rescheduled the hearing for Wednesday, French media reported. 

Francois Fillon is charged with giving his wife a fictional parliamentary assistant job for which she allegedly received more than US$1 million in salaries between 1998 and 2013, according to court documents.

Fillon’s chances to become president collapsed after the scandal in 2017. The couple will be tried for embezzlement of public funds.