PARIS, July 7. /TASS/. The Paris Court of Appeal has reduced to three years the previous sentence of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally party’s parliamentary faction, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

The three-year term is to be served as such - two years of suspended sentence and one year of wearing an electronic bracelet.

Besides, the judge ruled that Le Pen will not be eligible to hold public office for 45 months, with 30 months suspended. This leaves her with only 15 months of active ban counting from spring 2025.

Thus, officially, Le Pen will be able to run in the 2027 presidential election if she so chooses, but she has yet to announce her decision on the matter, the BFMTV television reported. Prior to the court session, the politician said that campaigning while wearing a tracking device was a no-go for her.

The investigation against Le Pen was launched over ten years ago, in June 2014, a month after the elections that saw 24 National Rally members elected to the European Parliament. The inquiry was based on an anonymous tipoff sent to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), which suggested that some of her party’s European Parliament assistants were hired in Paris, while, in line with the rules, they were supposed to be recruited either in Brussels or Strasbourg. In July 2023, Le Pen reimbursed 326,000 euro ($372,000 at the current exchange rate) allocated by the European Parliament as payment to these assistants.

On March 31, a Paris court sentenced Le Pen to four years - two years of suspended sentence and two years of wearing an electronic bracelet. The court also ruled to bar her from holding elected office and participating in elections for five years. Unlike her prison term, this measure took immediate effect and can only be overturned by successful appeal.