Midnight blue suit, indecipherable face behind a black mask, the one who was the head of government between 2007 and 2012, 67 years old today, soberly declared at the bar "challenging" the judgment which had condemned him in June 2020 to five years of imprisonment including two firm, 375,000 euros fine and ten years of ineligibility.
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During the first trial, "I felt ridiculed, even sometimes humiliated, I was paralyzed to the point of not being able to express myself as I would have liked", declared Pénélope Fillon, 66, complaining of a "prejudice" against him. “This time, I would like to convince you. »
Until November 30, the Franco-Welshwoman intends to defend her release, she who had been given three years of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 375,000 euros. Like the former mayor of Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Marc Joulaud, sentenced to the same prison term as well as a suspended fine of 20,000 euros.
The first day of hearings was devoted to procedural matters.
“François Fillon did not receive the same judicial treatment as any other litigant”, thundered his lawyer Antonin Lévy, asking for the first time the cancellation of the essentials of the file where there was according to him “something rotten ".
“Pressures”
Me Lévy invoked the statements, in June 2020, of the former head of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) who had been moved in the parliamentary committee by "pressure" from his hierarchy in this case, a few days before the judgment of the first trial – the defense had then requested, in vain, the postponement of the decision.
For him, the "nine" reports of information between the PNF and the general prosecutor's office were not made in compliance with the law and they explain the "widespread leaks" in the press.
The lawyer also accused the president of the Paris court of a "litany of lies", "errors and approximations" in his explanations on the appointment of the investigating magistrate. According to Me Levy, the latter was chosen "on purpose" for the "purpose" of an indictment of Mr. Fillon in the middle of the presidential campaign.
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The opening of this instruction was initially welcomed by Mr. Fillon, before he was indicted in March 2017, a few days before the closing of applications.
“We are in the process of intention”, replied Advocate General Bruno Revel who recalled that the Superior Council of the Judiciary (CSM), seized by Emmanuel Macron, had concluded at the end of 2020 that justice had acted “in a way independent”.
He considered that the defense request was inadmissible and that, on the merits, "the rules of fair trial (had) been respected".
“Fictitious” services
After a short deliberation, the Court of Appeal decided to settle this question with the merits of the case. She will also rule on December 14 on two priority questions of constitutionality (QPC) raised on Monday by the defense of the Fillon spouses.
In the midst of the debate for the investiture at Les Républicains for the next presidential election, justice is plunging back into this file which undermined the race for the Élysée Palace of the former Prime Minister.
He who was also a deputy for Sarthe will again have to explain his wife's employment as a parliamentary assistant between 1998 and 2013, by him and his deputy Marc Joulaud.
Resumption of the trial Tuesday afternoon
Services paid 613,000 euros net (more than one million euros gross) "fictitious or overvalued" according to the prosecution. Penelope Fillon's work was certainly "discreet" but "essential", her husband has always claimed.
The couple is also on trial for the employment of their two children as parliamentary assistants to their senator father between 2005 and 2007 (100,000 euros gross), as well as for the lucrative contract of Pénélope Fillon as "literary adviser" in 2012 and 2013 at the Revue des deux mondes, property of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière – 135,000 euros gross.
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François Fillon is finally being prosecuted for having failed to declare a loan from the businessman of up to 50,000 euros to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) – he was acquitted on this point by the court.
The trial resumes Tuesday afternoon.
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