France, Jan. 21 -- Far-right figurehead of the National Rally,Marine Le Pen, spent nearly five hours in the dock on Tuesday as she sought to persuade the Paris Court of Appeal that there was no organised scheme behind the use of parliamentary assistants by her party's MEPs - and that each contract should be judged on its own merits.

Facing judges in her appeal against a conviction for embezzlement, the three-time failed presidential candidate repeatedly pushed back against the prosecution's central claim of a coordinated operation.

"The word 'system' bothers me," she told the court. "It suggests manipulation." Instead, she insisted, every arrangement was a "different case", and she denied having issued any instructions.

That point stri...