French court shortens jail sentence for ex-PM Fillon

FILE PHOTO: French Prime Minister Francois Fillon delivers a speech during the traditional New Year ceremony which reopens the court of Cassation, France's highest judicial body, at a Paris court house January 14, 2010. REUTERS/Charles Platiau/File Photo

PARIS (Reuters) -A French appeals court on Monday upheld former Prime Minister Francois Fillon's conviction for embezzling public funds, but cut a year off his prison term.

Fillon was sentenced in 2020 to five years in jail, three of them suspended, for paying his wife about 1 million euros of public money for minimal work as his parliamentary assistant - a scandal that ended his presidential ambitions.