By Hajer M'tiri
PARIS (AA) – The Paris court of appeal on Wednesday ruled that France's far-right National Rally is to retrieve half of the 2 million euros ($2.35 million) seized by judges as part of an ongoing probe into alleged misuse of EU funds.
Judges had initially decided on June 28 to withhold 2 million euros, nearly half of the 4.5 million euros the National Rally — formerly known as the National Front — was allocated for 2018.
The party's leader Marine Le Pen protested the decision, calling it a “death sentence ” for her party which has been struggling to recover from her defeat to Emmanuel Macron in last year's presidential election.
The party’s lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut described the ruling as a “first victory ” and said he was considering another appeal to recover the rest of the money.
Le Pen, who served as MEP in 2009-2017, along with 12 other RN MEPs, as well as the party itself, are accused by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) of using funds generally available to EU lawmakers for parliamentary assistants to instead pay for staff based in France.
They deny the accusations.