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Prosecutor
Paris, Feb. 16, 2017 (dpa/NAN) French financial prosecutors on Thursday said they would not close investigations into conservative presidential hopeful, Francois Fillon, who has been accused of giving his wife a lucrative fake job as his parliamentary assistant.
“The national anti-corruption office has sent prosecutors the results of its initial investigations. The considerable information gathered so far does not, as matters stand, permit the proceedings to be closed,” the prosecution said.
Speaking to press, one of Fillon’s lawyers said there was “nothing new” in the prosecution statement.
”It showed that after three weeks of investigations, the prosecution had not come up with enough evidence to proceed to charges,” lawyer Antonin Levy argued.
Fillon, candidate of the centre-right Les Republicains, has denied any wrongdoing and insisted that his wife, Penelope, was genuinely working for him.
He also argues that only the parliament is entitled to judge how its members use their funds and that the financial prosecution has no jurisdiction in the case.
Fillon has dropped to third place in opinion polls since satirical newspaper, Le Canard Enchaine, first published the claims about his wife’s job in late January.
The former prime minister had previously been running second to Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Front.
The first round of voting is on April 23, followed by a run-off vote between the top two candidates in May if nobody gains an absolute majority.
Current polls suggests that centrist Emmanuel Macron is likely to beat Fillon into a run-off against Le Pen, who is expected to have more difficulty picking up votes in the second round than her rivals. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Ismail Abdulaziz