PARIS − French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement on Monday and handed an immediate five-year ban from public office, a sentence that will bar her from running in the 2027 presidential race unless she successfully appeals beforehand.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, member of parliament from the Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party, leaves the courthouse on the day of the verdict of her trial alongside 24 other defendants (party officials and employees,

The thunderclap court ruling barring far-right politician Marine Le Pen from office for five years has reverberated across the political spectrum of France and Europe

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen faces one of the defining days of her political career on Monday, when a court rules whether she is guilty of embezzlement in a trial that could see her barred from the 2027 presidential race.

It’s my political death they want,” far-right leader Marine Le Pen claimed in November – a prediction that proved prescient, though few took it seriously at the time.

E VEN BEFORE the sentence was pronounced, Marine Le Pen swept out of the courtroom, her handbag dangling from her arm. The French hard-right leader had heard enough, and had reason to fear the worst.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for political office for five years after being found guilty of embezzling European Union funds. Le Pen was also handed a four-year prison sentence with two years suspended,

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), was handed a five-year ban from running for public office after being convicted on Monday of embezzlement, almost certainly preventing her planned run for France's presidency in 2027.

Marine Le Pen will file an appeal after a French court found her guilty of embezzlement charges and barred her from running for office for five years, her lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut said on Monday. (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau;