court

Former French conservative prime minister François Fillon was on Monday handed a five-year prison sentence, with three years suspended, and his British wife Penelope was given a three-year suspended jail sentence, after a Paris court found the pair guilty of a scam in which Fillon paid his wife more than 800,000 euros as his parliamentary assistant for work she never did. 

A French court has ruled the rooster can continue his dawn crowing despite complaints from neighbours in the western town of Rochefort.

French cereal farmer Paul François, 55, has won a decade-long legal battle against US biotech firm Monsanto, now owned by German group Bayer, after a court in Lyon ruled that he was poisoned and left with chronic neurological disorders after accidentally inhaling a Monsanto weedkiller, Lasso, because the company had not sufficiently warned of the danger of the product, which contained monochlorobenzene.

Mélina Boughedir, who left her home in France with her four children in 2015 to follow her husband to Iraq, was sentenced to life by Iraqi court.

Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, 68, nicknamed Carlos the Jackal, who became one of the most notorious far-left terrorists during the 1970s and 1980s and who was already serving two life sentennces for terrorism in France, on Thursday lost his appeal before a Paris court againt a previous conviction for leading a hand grenade attack which killed two people and wounded 34 others in a shopping mall in the French capital in 1974.

The adult children of French rocker Johnny Hallyday, who died last December, have applied for his will to be frozen in an attempt to block the singer's testament leaving all his wealth and future royalties to his wife and two youngest children.

Cédric Herrou, who was previously arrested for aiding eight Eritreans, faces up to five years in jail and a €30,000 fine if convicted.

Billionaire and right-wing senator also faces call to be declared ineligible for public office for five years over hidden offshore bank accounts.

Official says IMF boss should go to court over her handling of massive state payout to Bernard Tapie when she was France's finance minister.

Appeal court throws out Bernard Tapie's attempt to reverse quashing of a 404-million-euro award to him in dispute with Crédit Lyonnais bank.

Salah Abdeslam invoked right to silence before investigating magistrates as lawyer says his client 'can't tolerate' 24-hour surveillance in cell.

The jailing of ex-Le Monde journalist Florence Hartmann, who had revealed claims about a cover-up by court, sparked an outcry.

Fourth French trial of Somali piracy in the Gulf of Aden may be last given dramatic drop in piracy incidents off Somalia in recent years.

Activists who had sought to stop evacuation of the southern half of the migrant camp say decision will leave thousands with nowhere to go.

There were angry scenes at a court near Paris after it dismissed charges against the officer, finding he shot a suspect in the back in self-defence.