France : Le Pen refuses police questioning in jobs probe

PARIS – French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is refusing to submit to police questioning in a probe into her party’s use of European Parliament aides.

Her lawyer said Friday that Le Pen would talk to police only after the April-May election.

Rodolphe Bossulet said on BFM television that Le Pen decided not to comply with a summons Wednesday, when two Le Pen aides were held for questioning. He called the refusal a protest against “artificially speeding up the questioning, just two months before the election.”

Le Pen’s chief of staff Catherine Griset, who also worked as a European Parliament assistant, was handed preliminary charges of breach of trust after Wednesday’s questioning.

Investigators suspect that members of Le Pen’s National Front used legislative aides for the party’s political activity while they were on the European Parliament’s payroll. The party denies wrongdoing.