French court upholds fake-job verdict against former PM Fillon

PARIS: A French appeals court on Monday upheld a conviction against former right-wing prime minister Francois Fillon for providing a fake parliamentary assistant job to his wife that saw her paid millions of euros in public funds.

But the court trimmed his sentence to four years in prison with three suspended — down from five years with three suspended when he was first found guilty in 2020 over a scandal that derailed Fillon’s presidential ambitions. His wife Penelope Fillon was given a suspended two-year prison sentence for the embezzlement charge, down from three years suspended, and the court maintained fines of 375,000 euros for each of them.