The £1million corruption trial of a former Prime Minister of France and his British wife was postponed today after lawyers blockaded the tribunal building as part of the country’s pensions protests.
Francois and Penelope Fillon, a mother-of-five who was born in Wales, were due in the dock on Monday.
But – in an embarrassing setback for a country currently plagued by industrial action – barristers blockaded the Paris Tribunal building where the process was due to start.
Lawyers blockaded the trial in Paris today as they protested against changes to state pensions
Former French prime minister Francois Fillon and his wife Penelope pictured arriving at court
The pair then left the court a short time later after their trial was postponed due to the protest
‘The protesting lawyers prevented the trial from going ahead, and so it was put back until Wednesday at the earliest,’ said a source close to the case.
The lawyers involved in the blockade were part of a nationwide movement campaigning against pension reforms being introduced by President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
It was Mr Macron who came to power in 2017 thanks to the disgraced Mr Fillon losing the presidential election thanks to his involvement in the so-called Penelopgate scandal
It saw Ms Fillon, 64, allegedly stealing cash worth nearly £1million by pretending to be the parliamentary assistant to her 65-year-old husband.
‘The figure covers taxpayers’ cash that was paid to the Fillons from the mid 1980s to 2013,’ said a prosecuting source in Paris.
Ms Fillon also had a fabricated and highly lucrative ‘job’ as ‘literary advisor’ to a magazine ran by a political ally of her husband, it is alleged.
Lawyers burned papers symbolising the pension reform bill and waved trade union flags
Guards pictured protecting the court house today as the protest took place outside
French lawyers pictured engaged in a protest outside the Paris courthouse today
The exposure of such scams led to Mr Fillon, a right-wing conservative who made much of his Catholicism and devotion to family values, losing the election.
He had been the hot favourite to become head of state, with Mrs Fillon as his First Lady, but both were instead placed under investigation, and the independent Emmanuel Macron was the surprise victor.
The couple will be tried for ‘misappropriation of public funds, fraud, theft and criminal complicity’.
Most come with prison sentences of up to 10 years, and fines equivalent to some £1million.
Marc Jouland, the MP who did Mr Fillon’s constituency work when he served as Prime Minister for five years up until 2012, is all set to stand trial.
Mr Jouland, 52, is said to have renewed Mrs Fillon’s fake contracts and increased her salary for doing nothing.
A prosecutors’ report reads: ‘There is no evidence indicating the reality of Penelope Fillon’s work.’
Francois and wife Penelope leave trial today. Francois was in power until Macron was elected
The pair pictured leaving the Paris courthouse today surrounded by aids and security
All three defendants deny any wrongdoing and are set to contest all the evidence against them.
In her last public interview in 2017, Mrs Fillon said she was ‘so surprised by all the violence and hysteria that I just withdrew inside my Welsh shell.’
But she insisted she was innocent, and added: ‘My husband needed someone to carry out these very diverse tasks. If it hadn’t been me, he would have paid someone else to do it. So we decided it would be me.’
Mrs Fillon is a solicitor’s daughter from Llanover, Wales, who went to King Henry VIII School in Abergavenny.
After studying modern Languages in London, and law at Bristol University, she married Mr Fillon, whom she had met while working as a teaching assistant in his home town of Le Mans.
The trial was due to open on Monday afternoon, and is scheduled to end on March 11.