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Paris, France — A French courtroom on Thursday discovered former justice minister Michel Mercier responsible of embezzlement in a faux jobs scheme he ran for the good thing about relations.
Mercier, 75, who served beneath former president Nicolas Sarkozy between 2010 and 2012, claimed tens of 1000’s of euros for his spouse and daughter for parliamentary jobs they by no means carried out.
The courtroom handed him a suspended jail sentence of three years.
Mercier gave “private acquire priority over the general public good”, the courtroom mentioned in its verdict, calling Mercier’s actions “critical”.
As senator, Mercier claimed 50,000 euros ($54,000 at at the moment’s price) in wage for his spouse Joelle between 2005 and 2009, and 37,000 euros for his daughter Delphine between 2012 and 2014.
Throughout that point, Delphine Mercier was dwelling in London and didn’t set foot within the French Senate, however her father claimed she was performing as his “cultural advisor”.
Neither Mercier nor his daughter have been capable of present any proof of precise work finished.
Joelle Mercier, in the meantime, claimed in the course of the trial that she had served as her husband’s consultant at village gala’s and funerals.
She was discovered responsible of conspiracy to embezzle public funds and of receiving stolen cash and sentenced to a suspended jail time period of 18 months and a 40,000-euro positive.
The courtroom handed the daughter a 12-month suspended sentence and a positive of 10,000 euros.
Prosecutors had requested for the ex-minister to serve one yr behind bars, accusing him of “creating smoke screens” in his defence and searching for to mislead the courtroom.
Mercier had primarily based a part of his defence on his rural roots, pitting his “frequent sense” towards the “Parisians” of the nationwide monetary crimes unit PNF.
A number of French politicians have been convicted for related offences dedicated earlier than France in 2017 banned Nationwide Meeting deputies and senators from using relations.
The transfer got here in response to a public outcry over a high-profile case involving former right-wing prime minister Francois Fillon, who was discovered responsible of offering a faux parliamentary assistant job to his spouse that noticed her paid a whole bunch of 1000’s of euros in public funds.
The “Penelopegate” scandal, revealed in a media report whereas he was the front-runner within the 2017 presidential race, torpedoed his political profession and cleared a path for then-relatively unknown Emmanuel Macron.
Final yr, a courtroom trimmed Fillon’s sentence to 4 years in jail with three suspended — down from 5 years with three suspended when he was first discovered responsible in 2020.
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