France's Marine Le Pen awaits verdict in pivotal case

A guilty verdict will result in the far-right leader being barred from running for president in 2027.

The face of France's far-right, Marine Le Pen, was due back in court on Tuesday bracing for a verdict that will determine if she can run in next year's presidential elections.

Le Pen, 57, was sentenced to a five-year ban from public office last year by a lower court, as well as two years in prison over a fake jobs scam when she was a member of the European Parliament.

The National Rally (RN) leader appealed that verdict, and it is the outcome of that appeal that will be decided today at 1:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT).

The appeals court could uphold the earlier ruling, quash it, or reduce Le Pen's sentence to a two-year ban and house arrest.

She told a party rally over the weekend that she was "not afraid" of the coming verdict.

After coming second in France's 2017 and 2022 elections, Le Pen is hoping to make another run for the presidency in 2027. If the ban is upheld, however, her protege Jordan Bardella has been groomed to take her place.

What was Le Pen convicted of?

As a member of what was then called the National Front, Le Pen was a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2017.

Alongside some two dozen former far-right employees, she was found guilty of misappropriating EU funds to pay alleged staffers for jobs that did not really exist.

Prosecutors said she "professionalized" a type of graft first introduced by her father, the late far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, to siphon EU funds.

Le Pen, the party, and 10 others have appealed their verdicts, with her fellow RN chief Bardella calling the trials "politically motivated." She has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Edited by: Natalie Muller