(UDHAYAM, FRANCE) – French center-right presidential candidate Francois Fillon was charged with several counts of embezzlement on Tuesday, further hobbling a campaign that he has nonetheless said he will continue.
Mr. Fillon becomes the first major candidate to seek the presidency under France’s Fifth Republic while under formal criminal investigation. The accusations against him center on the employment, at public expense, of his wife and two of his five children as parliamentary aides.
He had been leading the race after winning center-right primaries in November, but his campaign was upended when Le Canard Enchaine;, a weekly newspaper, reported in January on allegations that his wife had what amounted to a no-show public job as a parliamentary aide.
