PARIS (Reuters) - French former Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his wife will stand trial between February 24 and March 10, a Paris court said Thursday, on charges related to a fake jobs scandal that ruined his bid for the 2017 presidency.
A one-time favourite to win the election that Emmanuel Macron went on to triumph in, Fillon's candidacy nose-dived after revelations his wife Penelope had been paid hundreds of thousands of euros by the taxpayer for doing little or no work as his parliamentary assistant.
Fillon also paid two of their children for work as lawyers when he was a senator between 2005 and 2007.
Fillon, who was President Nicolas Sarkozy's Prime Minister between 2007 and 2012, was eliminated in the first round of the presidential election in May, 2017.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro; Editing by Richard Lough)