French ex-President Sarkozy held over influence claims

  

 



French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy has been detained for questioning over alleged influence peddling.
Mr Sarkozy is being held at Nanterre, near Paris, in an unprecedented step against a former president.
Mr Sarkozy is being questioned about whether he sought inside information from a judge concerning an investigation into campaign funding.

The latest developments are seen as a blow to Mr Sarkozy's attempts to challenge for the presidency in 2017. Investigators are trying to find out whether Mr Sarkozy, 59, who was president from 2007 to 2012, had promised a prestigious role in Monaco to a high-ranking judge, Gilbert Azibert, in exchange for information about an investigation into alleged illegal campaign funding.

They are looking into claims that Mr Sarkozy was warned his phone was being bugged as part of the funding probe.


Mr Azibert, one of the most senior judges at the court of appeal, was called in for questioning on Monday. Another judge, Patrick Sassoust, was also questioned, as was Mr Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Herzog.

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Analysis: The BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris

The drip-drip of allegations about Mr Sarkozy, money-raising and misuse of influence, continue to disrupt his much-touted return to frontline politics. Over the past two years the French have become used to regular stories in the press raising awkward questions about their former president's ethics.

Worried by the prying of investigators into claims of illegal party fund-raising, it is alleged that Mr Sarkozy used a judge as point-man in the High Court of Appeal to tell him how proceedings against him were progressing. More serious is whether this judge tried to influence decisions in Mr Sarkozy's favour.

Mr Sarkozy's supporters accuse the investigators of themselves being politically influenced - by the ruling left. How come, they ask, that every time Mr Sarkozy makes a move back towards political life, the media are fed a new twist in the investigations? One side says it is dogged police work. The other says it is harassment.

Sarkozy and France's investigators

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This is thought to be the first time a French former head of state has been held in police custody.

His predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was given a suspended prison sentence in 2011 for embezzlement and breach of trust while he was mayor of Paris.