France, June 17 -- Former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon was handed a four-year suspended prison sentence on Tuesday over a fake jobs scandal that derailed his 2017 presidential campaign. It marks the third appeal trial in the case since 2022.

Fillon, 71, had been found guilty in 2022 on appeal of embezzlement for providing a fake parliamentary assistant job to his wife, Penelope Fillon, that saw her being paid from public funds.

The court also ordered him to pay a fine of €375,000 ($433,000) and barred him from seeking elected office for five years.

The sentence was milder than the one handed down in 2022, when Fillon was sentenced to one year behind bars without suspension, the same fine, and 10 years of ineligibility. ...