PARIS (Reuters) -Former French prime minister Francois Fillon, who is appealing a five-year jail sentence for embezzling public funds, is under investigation again by financial prosecutors over payments to an assistant, his lawyer said on Friday.
Lawyer Antonin Levy accused the National Financial Prosecutor’s (PNF) office of a witch hunt and said Fillon, who served as premier under Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007-2012, had committed no wrongdoing.
The PNF said a preliminary probe had been opened for “embezzlment and concealment in 2017” and that it would be completed soon.
Although Fillon is unlikely to run again for president, the case could cast a pall over the centre-right’s campaign for the 2021 presidential election, at a time it is struggling to agree on a single candidate for the ticket.
RTL radio had reported prosecutors were probing whether Fillon, when he returned to being a parliamentarian after serving as prime minister, broke the law by using public funds to pay an assistant who helped the conservative politician write a book that was published in 2015.
“We’re not talking about a novel, nor a fiction. We’re talking about a book that expresses the political vision of a lawmaker,” Levy told BFM television.
“If a politician cannot write a political book, what’s the point of being a lawmaker,” he added.
It is against French law to use public funds to pay an individual for private gain.
A court found Fillon guilty in 2020 of a scam in which he allegedly paid his wife about 1 million euros over a period of years for minimal work as his parliamentary assistant.
The scandal upended Fillon’s 2017 run for president.
Fillon and his wife, who received a suspended jail sentence, are appealing against the convictions. He remains free while the appeal process is under way.
“This investigation dates from 2017, the same time as the original probe. They kept this element aside to serve it up just at the time of the appeal to sully further his name, to discredit him further,” Levy said of the latest probe.
(Reporting by Richard LoughAdditional reporting by Benoit van OverstraetenEditing by Alison Williams and Frances Kerry)
