Former french President Nicolas Sarkozy was on Tuesday held in custody and questioned by magistrates investigating accusations that he received campaign funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2007.
His lawyer had not made any comment on this by the time of publication of this article, though Sarkozy himself has in the past denied the allegations as “grotesque” and a “crude manipulation.”
France opened an inquiry into the case in 2013, following reports by French website Mediapart based on claims by a Franco-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine, who said he had transferred about US$6 million from Gadhafi’s former intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi to Sarkozy’s campaign director.
Months after he took office in 2007, the French leader came in for criticism for hosting a state visit by Gadhafi during which the Libyan leader pitched his trademark Bedouin-style tent next to the Elysee Palace.
Gadhafi’s first visit to a Western leader in decades, which was accompanied by the signing of several business deals, came after Sarkozy helped get five Bulgarian nurses accused of infecting children with HIV released from jail in Libya.
Sarkozy was later one of the chief advocates of a NATO-led military campaign that resulted in Gadhafi’s overthrow and killing at the hands of rebel forces in 2011.
French judicial procedure allows for investigators to hold a person for questioning for up to 48 hours, after which the magistrates must say whether they have grounds for turning a preliminary inquiry into a full investigation.
The latter can, but does not always, lead to a trial.
