Marine Le Pen charged over funding scandal

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was put under formal investigation on Friday as part of a probe into the alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants, a judicial source said.

The parliament suspects some €5 million  went to assistants of Ms Le Pen's National Front (FN) who were not working for MEPs but were actually engaged in FN party work in France.

The alleged fraudulent payments - from 2012 onwards - concern Le Pen and several other FN MEPs.

The allegations first arose on 27 April, ahead of the second round of voting in the French presidential election.

Le Pen, who is being investigated for breach of trust, has previously denied any wrongdoing in a case that she has said it politically motivated.