Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was charged with corruption on Wednesday, two days after the police took him into custody as part of an investigation into allegations that he received millions of euros from Libya to illegally finance his 2007 election campaign.
France started a judicial inquiry in 2013 into allegations that Sarkozy gained from illegal funds from the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The 63-year-old right-wing politician’s former associate, Alexandre Djouhri, was arrested in London in January in connection with this case.
Though Sarkozy has faced several investigations since 2012, these are the most severe allegations against a former French president in decades. Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has denied all the allegations.
Besides corruption, a French court also charged Sarkozy with illegal campaign financing and concealment of Libyan public money, AFP reported. The former president returned home on Wednesday under court supervision. He will now have six months to appeal the charges, and the court will then decide if it has enough proof to go to trial.
In 2016, French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine had claimed that he delivered 5 million euros (approximately Rs 40.2 crore) in cash from Libya to Sarkozy and Claude Guéant who was his campaign director between 2006 and 2007.
Sarkozy has already been told to face trial in connection with a separate illegal campaign financing case. Sarkozy’s party, The Republican, has been accused of submitting false accounts to conceal the actual cost of his 2012 presidential election campaign. He reportedly was aware of the scam. He has also been charged in a case for allegedly using his position to influence a judge.
Other right-wing Republican politicians have so far backed him. “Friendship and loyal support to Nicolas Sarkozy in this test,” the treasurer of his 2007 campaign, Eric Woerth, tweeted. Another party member said he believed that Sarkozy was a victim of “vengeance” by members of the former Libyan regime and the French judiciary.
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