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French presidential election: Police search Francois Fillon's home amid fake jobs scandal | French presidential election: Police search Francois Fillon's home amid fake jobs scandal |
(about 1 hour later) | |
French police have searched the home of presidential candidate François Fillon as part of an ongoing investigation into an allegedly fictitious Parliamentary job given to his wife, local media reports. | |
The raid was conducted on Thursday morning in Paris however authorities have not commented on the search, according to Le Parisien. | |
Mr Fillon has consistently denied that he employed Penelope Fillon in a fictitious capacity, and has backtracked from a previous pledge that he would stand down in the event of an official probe being launched. | |
He confirmed he would be summoned for questioning over “Penelopegate” on 15 March, claiming the investigation process had been unfair and amounted to a “political assassination”. | |
“I will answer the summons, I will respect the judges…although what we have seen is not natural,” Mr Fillon said. | |
“I will not cede, I will not give up, I will not withdraw, I will continue to the end because it is democracy that is under attack.” | |
Mr Fillon was leading polls until Le Canard enchaîné newspaper broke the scandal last month. | |
The paper found Ms Fillon was paid €831,400 (£710,000; $900,000) over several years for her work as parliamentary assistant to Mr Fillon despite having no parliamentary pass or email address. | |
Mr Fillon has remained adamant his wife conducted genuine work, though he has acknowledged her employment was an error of judgement. | |
The list of potential charges include misappropriation of public funds, abuse of public funds and influence trafficking. | |
The former Prime Minister, who is running for the centre-right Républicains, battled down a rebellion by members of his party last month and insisted his withdrawal from the race would destabilise their campaign. | |
Opinion polls currently put him lagging in third place for the first round of the French election, behind Front National leader Marine Le Pen and centre-left independent candidate Emmanuel Macron. |
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