Marine Le Pen has attacked her ban from running for public office for five years as a "political decision" by the judge
She also accused the court of trying to block her candidacy for the 2027 French presidential election, calling the ban worth of "authoritarian regimes"
Le Pen was found guilty of embezzling European funds to finance her French far-right National Rally (RN) party
Le Pen expected the guilty sentence - but not this ban, writes our correspondent Hugh Schofield in Paris
She has also been given a four-year prison sentence - two years will be spent with an electronic tag rather than in custody, while the other two are suspended
Reacting to the conviction, her lawyer says "it's a blow to democracy" and she intends to appeal
Watch: Le Pen leaves court before sentencing ends
We've just had it confirmed that Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for office for five years.
This means she will not be able to contest the French presidential election in 2027.
Hugh Schofield
Paris correspondent
Image source, EPAI don't know what has led her to leave - whether it was her ban from public office, hearing the words "with immediate effect", or whether she wanted to get out to avoid the press.
Until we can say she is definitively out of the 2027 race it is hard to draw any further conclusions.
The key question is how long she is banned from public office - five years and she would be out of the race. Two years and she would be out of the race because the campaign would have started.
But one year or six months then she could conceivably run. I'm afraid, for now, we are still stuck here waiting for the inner wording of the verdict.
Here's new footage of Le Pen leaving the courtroom, as the judge continues to hand down the sentence inside.
Watch: Marie Le Pen leaves court before sentencing ends
We're hearing that Marine Le Pen left the courtroom before the judge had finished handing down the sentence.
A moment ago, it was confirmed that Le Pen had been banned from running for office with immediate effect - but we don't yet know how long that ban will last.
Image source, ReutersThe French court has banned Marine Le Pen from standing for public office after she was found guilty of misappropriating EU funds to finance her far-right party.
Crucially, we don't yet know how long the ban will be. A five-year ban - which prosecutors want - would stop her running for president in 2027.
We'll bring you more details from the courtroom as the judge continues to hand down the sentence.
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been found guilty of embezzling EU funds.
The presidential hopeful and eight other people who were EU lawmakers at the time, along with 12 parliamentary assistants, were found guilty of embezzling funds to fund their French National Rally (RN) party.
"It was established that all these people were actually working for the party, that their (EU) lawmaker had not given them any tasks," Judge Benedicte de Perthuis told the court.
"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, who sat in the front row in court, shook her head as the judge spoke, the Reuters news agency reports.