{{Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is to be investigated over allegations that he accepted cash from slain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 election campaign. }}
Sarkozy was among NATO leaders who violated UN Resolution 1973 to invade Libya and kill Col Gaddafi in cold blood, a development that saw him being accused of wanting to silence Gaddafi after reports emerged that the Libyan leader had bankrolled Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign to the tune of US$65.5 million.
Judicial sources confirmed yesterday that a formal probe has been opened that could lead to Sarkozy facing a second set of corruption-related charges arising from his campaign.
Sarkozy (58) was charged last month with taking advantage of a person incapacitated by illness in a case that centres on allegations he accepted envelopes stuffed with cash from France’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt.
He adamantly denies any wrongdoing and is suing investigative news website Mediapart over the Libya allegations.
Mediapart reported last April that Gaddafi’s government had contributed US$65.5 million to Sarkozy’s successful 2007 campaign.
Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman who is embroiled in a series of political financing scandals in France, has also repeatedly claimed that he has proof Sarkozy was financed by the Libyans but has refused to make his evidence public.
Gaddafi was toppled and he himself was killed in 2011 following an uprising backed by a NATO intervention that Sarkozy was instrumental in organising.
As well as the Libya and Bettencourt cases, Sarkozy is the subject of ongoing investigations into alleged cronyism in the awarding of contracts for opinion polls, an illegal police investigation into journalists and alleged kickbacks on a Pakistani arms deal.
Sarkozy lost his immunity from prosecution after losing the 2012 presidential election to Francois Hollande.
In March, he was placed under formal investigation on suspicion of taking advantage of Bettencourt to secure up to four million euros in financing for his 2007 campaign.
L’Oreal heiress Bettencourt has suffered from dementia since 2006.
Under French law, being placed under formal investigation is the equivalent of being charged in other legal systems but does not mean the case will necessarily end in a trial.
If convicted in the Bettencourt case, Sarkozy faces up to three years in jail, a fine of 375 000 euros (US$480 000), and a five-year ban from public office which would destroy any hope he entertains of making a political comeback.
French judges demonstrated their readiness to go after former leaders with their successful pursuit of Sarkozy’s predecessor as president, Jacques Chirac.
{AFP}
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