Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was placed in custody on Tuesday as part of an investigation that he received millions of euros in illegal financing from the regime of the late Libyan leader Muamar Qadhafi.
A judicial source with direct knowledge of the case told The Associated Press that Mr. Sarkozy was being held at the Nanterre police station, west of Paris. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the matter publicly.
Mr. Sarkozy and his former chief of staff have denied wrongdoing in the case, which involves funding for his winning 2007 presidential campaign.
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Though an investigation has been underway since 2013, the case gained traction some three years later when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told the online investigative site,
A lawyer for Mr. Sarkozy did not immediately respond to a message from the AP seeking comments.
Investigators are examining claims that Qadhafi’s regime secretly gave Mr. Sarkozy €50 million overall for the 2007 campaign. Such a sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time of €21 million. In addition, the alleged payments would violate French rules against foreign financing and declaring the source of campaign funds.
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In the Mediapart interview published in November 2016, Mr. Takieddine said he was given €5 million in Tripoli by Qadhafi’s intelligence chief on trips in late 2006 and 2007 and that he gave the money in suitcases full of cash to Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Gueant on three occasions. He said the handovers took place in the Interior Ministry, while Mr. Sarkozy was Interior Minister.
Mr. Takieddine has for years been embroiled in his own problems with French justice, centering mainly on allegations he provided illegal funds to the campaign of conservative politician Edouard Balladur for his 1995 presidential election campaign via commissions from the sale of French submarines to Pakistan.
According to Le Monde newspaper, investigators have recently handed to magistrates a report in which they detailed how cash circulated within Mr. Sarkozy’s campaign team.
In January, a French businessman suspected of playing a role in the financing scheme, Alexandre Djouhri, was arrested in London on a warrant issued by France “for offenses of fraud and money laundering.” Le Monde said French investigators are also in possession of several documents seized at his home in Switzerland.
Mr. Sarkozy had a complex relationship with Qadhafi. Soon after becoming the French president, Mr. Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader to France for a state visit and welcomed him with high honors. But Mr. Sarkozy then put France in the forefront of NATO-led airstrikes against Qadhafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his regime in 2011.
It is not the first time that Mr. Sarkozy has faced legal trouble. In February 2016, he was handed preliminary charges by French magistrates for suspected illegal overspending on his failed 2012 re-election campaign and ordered to stand trial.