- Title: France's Fillon faces formal investigation for fraud, maintains innocence
- Date: 15th March 2017
- Summary: LIBERATION SHOWING HIS PHOTO WITH HEADLINE (French) "FILLON EARLY FOR THE JUDGES", CHARLIE HEBDO FRONT PAGE SHOWING FILLON'S LIMBS CHAINED AND WITH HEADLINE THAT READS (French) "HOLD TIGHT, FILLON", AND LE PARISIEN WITH HEADLINE (French) "WHAT IT CHANGES... OR NOT" VARIOUS OF NEWSPAPERS
- Embargoed: 29th March 2017 09:51
- Keywords: Francois Fillon France Paris presidential election fraud investigation wife
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: Netherlands
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA002682JX3B
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Francois Fillon's troubled election campaign suffered yet another blow on Tuesday (March 14) when magistrates put him under formal investigation on suspicion of embezzling state funds, a first for a presidential candidate in France.
With less than six weeks to go until the first round of voting, Fillon has been unable to draw a line under allegations that he paid his wife hundreds of thousands of euros of public money for little work.
Speaking on Tuesday in a general assembly of the National Federation of Hunters, Fillon made a light-hearted comment, saying "In this presidential campaign where the bullets are flying low, I can tell you, with a smile, that it doesn't bother me to be with real hunters."
Tuesday's decision put him one step closer to a trial and covered a wide range of grounds: suspicion of embezzling public funds, complicity in misappropriating funds, receiving the funds and not declaring assets fully, a judicial source said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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