By Juliette Jabkhiro
PARIS, July 9 (Reuters) – French far-right leader Marine Le Pen is running for president, but unresolved legal questions loom over her campaign.
Below are attempts to address the main issues:
WHERE DOES LE PEN’S CASE STAND NOW?
Le Pen’s embezzlement conviction was upheld on Tuesday, but she said she would appeal to France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation.
The Paris appeals court found Le Pen guilty of misusing EU funds to pay party staff and sentenced her to three years in prison, with two suspended and one to be served in home detention with an electronic tag.
But the court also cleared her to run for office by shortening an electoral ban that Le Pen and her allies had argued was undemocratic. Le Pen said there was no longer any scenario in which she would not run.
Her appeal to the Cour de Cassation will have the effect of suspending the sentence – and the obligation to wear the tag.
CAN LE PEN ESCAPE AN ELECTRONIC TAG?
An ankle tag brings a certain ignominy – though it can be concealed under trousers – but also, usually, a requirement to spend each night at home, a major impediment to a nationwide election campaign.
But once Le Pen lodges the appeal, her sentence will be suspended pending the verdict. The court said on Wednesday it could rule before the presidential election – by early April at the latest – although that timeframe could change.
If the Cour de Cassation overturns the appeals court ruling before the election, it will send the case back. In the meantime, Le Pen will be presumed innocent and not need to wear the anklet.
If it upholds the appeals court’s ruling, Le Pen will be definitively convicted and have to serve her sentence, which would include wearing the tag.
However, procedural steps make it unlikely that Le Pen would wear the tag for very long before the vote, if at all.
If she is elected president, she will have immunity until the end of her term. If she is defeated, she will have to take her punishment at once.
IS LE PEN’S CANDIDACY GUARANTEED?
Not absolutely.
Legal experts say there is a scenario in which Le Pen’s electoral ban could reappear.
If the Cour de Cassation sends the case back to an appeals court, her electoral ban could potentially be reinstated as she awaits a new trial. Confronted with this notion in a TV interview on Tuesday, Le Pen said the legal experts were wrong.
In that event, the Constitutional Council, France’s top constitutional watchdog, would have the final word on whether she can run or not.
WILL VOTERS OVERLOOK LE PEN’S LEGAL WOES?
Two opinion polls point to Le Pen winning the presidential election, even though a majority of voters do not agree that she is innocent.
Ifop pollsters for LCI and Le Figaro, and Toluna Harris Interactive for M6 and RTL show Le Pen leading the first round and being elected in the run-off on May 2, as did most opinion polls before the verdict.
Much can happen before the first round on April 18, and the pollsters stress that their surveys are not forecasts, but rather a snapshot of current voting intentions.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro; editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Kevin Liffey)
