France's Le Pen says had 'no sense of having committed slightest offence'

France's three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said in court Tuesday she did not feel she was committing any offence when her far-right party employed European Parliament assistants from 2004.

I had "no sense of having committed the slightest offence when, in 2004, 2009, and 2014, we hired our assistants," she said as her appeal trial opened in a case of alleged European Parliament fake jobs.

"If indeed any wrongdoing was committed, the European Parliament did not play the warning role it should have."

The European institution "was aware of the overall elements making up these contracts. We concealed nothing," she added.

A lower court last year found Le Pen guilty, along with 24 former European lawmakers, assistants and accountants, as well as the far-right party itself, of operating a "system" from 2004 to 2016 using EU Parliament funds to employ RN employees in France.

The court handed her a four-year sentence, two of which were suspended, and banned her from running for office for five years, scuppering her ambition to run for president for a fourth time in 2027. She is seeking to have that ruling overturned.