French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzling EU funds.

The presidential hopeful and eight other people who were EU
lawmakers at the time, along with 12 parliamentary assistants, were found guilty of
embezzling funds to fund their French National Rally (RN) party.

“It was established that
all these people were actually working for the party, that their
(EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks,” Judge Benedicte de Perthuis told the court.

“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.”

Le Pen, who sat in the front row in court, shook her head as the judge spoke, the Reuters news agency reports.