France's former prime minister, François Fillon, defends the "essential" nature of the work carried out by his wife Penelope over the years, as the couple is tried on appeal for fraud. The 2017 presidential hopeful was last year sentenced to five years in prison, three of them suspended, for orchestrating a fake job for his wife, who received a suspended three-year sentence. COMPLETES VIDI9T6939_EN IMAGES of François Fillon and his wife Penelope during recess