French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has said that barring her from running for public office for five years is a “political decision” aimed at preventing her from running in the next presidential election.

The National Rally leader, who left court before the verdict was read out, was found guilty in an embezzlement case.

She was also given a four-year jail sentence, with two years suspended and two which will be served with an electronic tag. She is not expected to serve any jail time.

Le Pen, who also received a €100,000 (£83,635) fine, will make an appeal against her conviction, her lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut later said.

The 56-year-old is a three-time presidential contender who has previously said the next election in 2027 would be her final run for top office.

The ban, which comes into force immediately, ends those hopes unless she successfully appeals before the campaign.

Speaking to French TV channel TF1 in her first reaction to the verdict, Le Pen said millions of French people “are outraged”.

Calling the verdict a violation of the rule of law, she said she would appeal it and asked that court proceedings take place before the 2027 campaign.

“If that’s not a political decision, I don’t know what is,” Le Pen said.

The ruling marked a “fateful day for our democracy”, she added, as she vowed to keep pursuing what she called the now “admittedly narrow” path to the presidency.

“There are millions of French people who believe in me, millions of French people who trust me,” she said, adding: “For 30 years I’ve been fighting for you, and for 30 years I’ve been fighting against injustice, so I’m going to continue fighting.”

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Le Pen and 24 other National Rally officials were accused of diverting more than €3m (£2.51m) of European Parliament funds to pay France-based staff working for her party between 2004 and 2016.

The judge also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of Le Pen’s party who, like her, previously served as MEPs in the European Parliament.

Another 12 people, who served as parliamentary aides for Le Pen and her party, were also handed guilty verdicts.

The ruling at a court in Paris described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass” that deceived the parliament and voters.

Judge Benedicte de Perthuis ruled: “It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their (EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks.

“The investigations also showed that these were not administrative errors… but embezzlement within the framework of a system put in place to reduce the party’s costs.”

Le Pen left the court before the completion of the verdict and sentencing and did not address the media outside before being driven away in a car.

She had denied accusations she was at the head of “a system” meant to siphon off EU funds to benefit her party.

Hearings revealed how some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard – who was once her father’s bodyguard – as well as for her personal assistant.

The defendants denied any wrongdoing and claimed the money was used legitimately.

The nine-week trial took place at the end of last year.

Le Pen has been seen as one of the leading contenders to succeed President Emmanuel Macron at the end of his second and final term.

She was the runner-up to Mr Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections.

Reacting to the verdict, National Rally president Jordan Bardella said: “Today it is not only Marine Le Pen who was unjustly condemned: It was French democracy that was killed.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia does “not want to interfere in France’s internal affairs” but added: “More and more European capitals are going down the path of trampling over democratic norms.”

Le Pen also serves in France’s National Assembly – but there is no impact on the role by the court’s ineligibility ruling.

However, if parliament was dissolved for elections, she would not be able to stand.

Marine Le Pen’s political career lies in tatters.

After decades of plotting her ascent to the very pinnacle of French politics, she has now been pushed down the mountain, and her fall could be long and painful.

The far-right leader, who had been the narrow favourite to win the 2027 French presidential election, will now be banned from running for public office for five years as part of a criminal conviction.

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Le Pen, along with politicians and assistants from her National Rally (RN) party, has been found guilty of embezzlement – of taking millions of euros that were supposed to support work in the European Parliament and instead funnelling it to the party’s work elsewhere.

She will almost certainly appeal, but her ban has already come into effect.

Le Pen left the court in Paris shortly before her punishment was announced, heading towards her party’s headquarters for a meeting with its president, Jordan Bardella – the man most likely to take her place.

“Today, it is not just Marine Le Pen who is being condemned unjustifiably,” said Bardella. “It is French democracy that is being executed.”

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Her downfall will be welcomed by some in France as a sign that politicians are not above the law.

Others, though, have already bemoaned the fact that a court has been given the power to disbar one of the nation’s most popular political leaders.

It hasn’t taken long for the court’s decision to be politicised. The Kremlin talked about European countries “trampling democratic norms”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban put out a short statement of support saying “Je Suis Marine”.

Assuming that Le Pen does not win her appeal, the favourite to win the 2027 election may now be Edouard Philippe, the former prime minister.

Bardella may benefit from being Le Pen’s anointed successor, but at 29, he is extremely youthful – a full decade younger than anyone who has ever won the presidency.

Video from the Myanmar earthquake has revealed the terrifying ordeal of being trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building.

The footage shows two girls, aged 13 and 16, and their bloodied grandmother in a debris-filled space after Friday’s powerful 7.7-magnitude quake.

They became trapped as they fled their sixth-floor apartment in the country’s second biggest city of Mandalay – near the epicentre of the earthquake – and ran for the emergency stairs.

The girls’ father initially believed his daughters and mother had died and appealed for help on social media to retrieve their bodies.

But they were alive – and had grabbed their phones in the moments before the building collapsed.

Writing on Facebook, he said: “My daughters recorded videos on their phones, thinking that if they and grandma died, their phones might be found, and their father and mother, would see them.

“They even unlocked their phones.”

He said his family could hear others trapped underneath them in the wreckage of the Sky Villa apartment block.

“They called out to each other from above and below, but there was no sound from the outside. As hours passed, they became disheartened and held hands with grandma, crying,” he said.

Rescuers eventually found them and used a hammer to make a small hole to pass them water, but they had to leave to get more equipment.

Left alone for some time, the girls took matters into their own hands and used the hammer to make a gap for them to escape.

“They wanted to make a bigger opening for grandma, but the large stones were too heavy, and both sisters couldn’t move them,” said the man’s post.

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‘Gasping for breath’

Rescuers returned and managed to pull the girls out.

Their 75-year-old grandmother was “gasping for breath” and could not fit through – but was also later rescued.

“I am deeply grateful to my mother and my two daughters for enduring this ordeal with such strong spirits,” the man wrote.

“These are the words my daughters shared with me after their trauma had subsided.

“At a time when all hope was lost, I bow my head in reverence and gratitude to the Lord Buddha for allowing our family to survive together.”

More than 1,700 people are now said to have died in Myanmar following the quake, according to state media on Sunday.

Eighteen were also killed in Thailand but dozens more remain unaccounted for. Hopes of people surviving in rubble diminish after 72 hours.

The UN is rushing aid supplies to survivors in Myanmar but the rescue effort is complicated by the fact that many roads, bridges, rail lines and airports have been damaged.

The country is also in the middle of an ongoing civil war that has taken a heavy toll on the health system and displaced more than three million people.