A French court has found far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty in an embezzlement case and banned her from running for office for five years, a ruling that may keep her from participating in the 2027 presidential race in which she is currently the front-runner.
The court on March 31 also sentenced Le Pen, a member of the National Rally party (RN), to a four-year prison sentence, with two of those years to be spent under house arrest and two years suspended.
Eight other current or former RN members -- who, like Le Pen, previously served as European Union parliament members -- as well as 12 assistants for Le Pen and her party were also found guilty of syphoning off EU funds for the benefit of RN, which Le Pen led from 2011 to 2021.
The defendants were not accused of pocketing the funds but rather of illegally using the money intended for EU parliamentary aides to pay RN staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016.
"The investigations also showed that these were not administrative errors...but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party's costs," Judge Benedicte de Perthuis said in his ruling.
Le Pen, 56, and her co-defendants deny wrongdoing and can appeal the ruling. Her ban on running for office, however, is effective immediately and can only be removed if her appeal is successful.
Le Pen, who was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 elections, is one of the most prominent figures of the European far right and a front-runner in polls for France's 2027 contest. She had said 2027 would be her final run for top office.
During the trial, Le Pen said the prosecutors were seeking her "political death." She left the court hearing before the sentence was announced.
US President Donald Trump called the conviction and prohibition from running in the 2027 a "very big deal."
Trump and LePen have drawn comparisons over their views on immigration and charged rhetoric against minorities.
"I know all about it, and a lot of people thought she wasn't going to be convicted of anything," Trump said.
"But she was banned for running for five years, and she's the leading candidate. That sounds like this country, that sounds very much like this country," Trump said in an apparent reference to legal cases that Trump faced before he took office.