The far-right leader was found guilty of embezzlement but has challenged the decision so she can run for the presidency.
PARIS — France’s highest court said Wednesday it would rule on far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s latest appeal of an embezzlement conviction by early April, before voters head to the polls.
Le Pen’s first appeal concluded Tuesday, when a three-judge panel upheld a lower court’s guilty verdict and sentenced her to a year under house arrest. The 57-year-old lawmaker later announced she would run for president and again appeal the verdict, this time to the Court of Cassation. In the French legal system, appeals temporarily lift most sentences until the legal process concludes.
The court’s announcement means the case will hover over Le Pen’s campaign and potentially set up a dramatic few days before the first round of the vote on April 18. Le Pen, who polls show is the contest’s current front-runner, could be found guilty and sentenced to house arrest just weeks before winning a presidential election.
A survey taken by pollster Ifop after Le Pen declared her candidacy found she would win the first round handily and then beat former center-right Prime Minister Edouard Philippe by 54 to 46 percent.
Le Pen was accused of illicitly using European Parliament funds to pay for assistants who worked on domestic party business as opposed to affairs in Brussels.
During her first public outing Wednesday morning after being found guilty by an appeals court, a defiant Le Pen said she would “not spend the campaign making legal analyses,” and insisted that nothing could make her go back on her decision to run for president.
Le Pen said the French population “knows the ins and outs” of the case, “which has been going on for 10 years,” and that it was therefore unlikely to move voters one way or the other.
Her opponents, however, will likely try to use the conviction against her. Gabriel Attal, a former prime minister now running for president, said he “belongs to a new generation of politicians for whom setting a good example and integrity are probably the most important values.”
Raphaël Glucksmann, a likely center-left candidate, denounced an “unprecedented situation.”
“We have a person who, having been convicted, has decided to announce their candidacy for the presidential election on the very same day,” he said.
If Le Pen’s guilty verdict were to be upheld, a new judge would be tasked with determining the conditions of her house arrest, including when she would be allowed to leave her home. It is not clear if such a hearing would take place before the election.
This story has been updated.