The European Court of Human Rights today rejected a request by French far-right leader Marine Le Pen (Marine) to suspend her ban from holding public office imposed on her by the Criminal Court in Paris in March.
"The court dismisses Marine Le Pen's application because it has not been established that there is an imminent risk of irreparable damage to a right protected by the (European) Convention on Human Rights or its protocols," the Strasbourg-based court said.
The Court did not rule on the merits of the case, but rejected Le Pen's request under Article 39 of the Rules of Court, which requires the Court to rule urgently in the event of an imminent risk of irreparable damage to a right protected by the Convention.
Marine Le Pen has assessed that there is an urgent need to suspend her sentence if French President Emmanuel Macron decides to dissolve parliament again.
She expressed regret over the decision of the European Court of Human Rights and added that her rights are not currently in jeopardy, but would be in jeopardy if parliament were dissolved.
The chairwoman of the far-right National Rally party's parliamentary group was found guilty on March 31 of setting up a "system" of embezzling public funds to pay party employees with European Parliament money between 2004 and 2016, amounting to 4,4 million euros.
She was then declared guilty and unfit to hold public office, which calls into question her candidacy for any future elections.
Bonus video:
