Former French Prime Minister François Fillon received a four-year suspended prison sentence on Tuesday in a 'fictitious jobs' scandal.

The sentence was handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal after Fillon was found guilty in 2022 of embezzlement in connection with the fictitious employment of his wife, Penelope Fillon, for which she was paid with public money, although the court found that she had never worked in the National Assembly. The appeals court also imposed a 375,000 euro fine and a five-year ban from holding public office.