France, July 9 -- Despite maintaining the guilty verdict against Le Pen, Tuesday's ruling by the Paris court of appeal worked in the politician's favour.

It shortened a ban on public office that would have kept the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN) - formerly the National Front - out of next year's presidential election and cleared the path for a second appeal that effectively puts her sentence on hold.

Le Pen was convicted last year of participating in a fake jobs scam at the European Parliament which saw more than €2.8 million of EU funds fraudulently diverted to the RN's coffers between 2004 and 2016.

A lower court had sentenced her to a four-year prison sentence, a fine of €100,000 and, crucially, a five-year ...