Former French presidential hopeful attends hearing in fake jobs trial
Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his wife Penelope faced a Paris court on Monday (February 23) over a fake jobs scandal that ruined his 2017 run for president, opening the Elysee Palace door for Emmanuel Macron.
It's alleged that Fillon paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros for doing little, if any, work as his parliamentary assistant.
Investigators estimate Penelope Fillon received 1 million euros from her husband's office over a three decade period to 2013.
An experienced political insider who served as prime minister under Nicolas Sarkozy, Fillon was the comfortable frontrunner in the election race when the allegations surfaced.
He denied wrongdoing, resisted party pressure to pull his candidacy, and was eliminated in the first round of the vote.
The start of the trial was postponed until Wednesday (February 26) due to a strike by lawyers opposing the government's pension reform.
