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France's Front National to face campaign finance fraud trial

The far-right party and two of its senior officials ordered to stand trial for alleged fraud, abuse of trust and misuse of assets in 2012 elections.

La rédaction de Mediapart

This article is freely available.

France's far-right National Front (FN) party and two of its senior officials have been ordered to stand trial for alleged election campaign spending fraud, sources close to the case told AFP Thursday, reports Yahoo! News.

Investigating magistrates have accused the FN and its treasurer Wallerand de Saint-Just and one of its vice-presidents, Jean-Francois Jalkh, of fraud, abuse of trust and misuse of assets.

The party's leader Marine Le Pen was questioned by investigators but has not been charged.

The case concerns the alleged abuse of millions of euros of government money paid to reimburse campaign spending in both the 2012 legislative and presidential elections.

Investigators suspect the party exaggerated its expenses to claim more than it was due.

The party and both officials deny any wrongdoing.

Le Pen is tipped to reach the second-round runoff in next year's presidential election.

Read more of this AFP report published by Yahoo! News.