French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was on Tuesday questioned by judges probing her National Front (FN) party for fraud, according to sources close to the investigation, reports Yahoo! News.
Le Pen, 47, was questioned for several hours after twice previously having refused to appear before judges investigating the FN's finances.
The FN and several of the party's high-ranking members have been charged* with misuse of company assets and conspiracy to commit fraud over the financing of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2012.
Financial investigators suspect the party's leaders and associated companies of defrauding the state by inflating campaign expenses.
The FN denies the embezzlement of millions of euros.
Le Pen is classified as an "assisted witness" in the French legal system, which means she herself is not formally under investigation but could still be charged.
Le Pen and her father, who founded the FN, have been dogged by legal woes, and recently attracted the attention of prosecutors who suspect they undervalued their assets in their tax declarations.
Read more of this AFP report published by Yahoo! News.
* Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mise en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being charged. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.