Le Pen is found guilty

A FRENCH court has convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years a hammer blow to the far-right leader's presidential hopes and a major development for French politics.

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Le Pen's lawyer said she would appeal against the verdict but she will remain ineligible while she does so and could be ruled out of the 2027 presidential race. She was also sentenced to four years of imprisonment, with two to be served under house arrest and two suspended.

The court ruling was a political as well as a judicial sensation for France, hobbling a leading contender to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and final term. So broad were the political implications that even some of Le Pen's opponents reacted by saying that the Paris court had gone too far.