Paris court sentences Le Pen to 4 years in prison

A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty Monday in an embezzlement case and followed up the verdict with a sentence barring her immediately from running for office for five years. Le Pen abruptly left the Paris courtroom before hearing how long she will be banned from running for public office.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from her National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing.

The biggest concern for Le Pen was that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office preventing her from running for president in 2027 -- a scenario she had described as a “political death.”

The leader of the French "For the Republic" party, commenting on Le Pen's verdict, noted that this is a system of seizing power, which removes candidates who are capable of winning.

The Kremlin linked Le Pen's verdict to the violation of democracy in Europe.

"More and more European capitals are taking the path of violating democratic norms," ​​said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president.