Sarkozy to hit back over graft charges

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy arrives with police by car at the financial investigation unit in Paris. Picture: Pascal Rossignol

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy arrives with police by car at the financial investigation unit in Paris. Picture: Pascal Rossignol

Published Jul 2, 2014

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Paris - Nicolas Sarkozy was set Wednesday to break his silence over the corruption charges threatening to torpedo the former president's hopes of a political comeback.

The right-wing leader, who vehemently denies any wrongdoing in any of raft of scandals in which he has been implicated, is due to appear on France's biggest television and radio stations on Wednesday evening.

His first major broadcast interview since he lost the 2012 presidential election will give him the opportunity to react to being charged on three corruption-related counts after becoming the first ex-president to be held in custody.

Sarkozy was quizzed for 15 hours on Tuesday by judges investigating an alleged attempt to interfere in judicial proceedings in another case.

After the interrogation in a Paris police station, Sarkozy, 59, he was put before a judge in the early hours of Wednesday.

The judge accepted the examining magistrates request for the former president to be “mis en examen” - literally “put under investigation” - the nearest equivalent of being charged in the French legal system.

Sarkozy's long-standing lawyer Thierry Herzog and senior magistrate Gilbert Azibert were charged with the same offences.

After the hearing, Sarkozy was allowed to return to the Paris home he shares with his ex-supermodel wife Carla Bruni and their young daughter, but he can be recalled to custody for fresh questioning at any time.

He was the first former president of France to be detained in a criminal probe but not the first to be charged with corruption.

Jacques Chirac was convicted in 2011 on graft charges but escaped prison on compassionate grounds due to ill-health.

The charges against Sarkozy carry a theoretical maximum prison term of 10 years in the event of a conviction but legal experts regard custodial sentences in this case as unlikely.

President Francois Hollande said his predecessor must “benefit from the presumption of innocence,” while Prime Minister Manuel Valls dismissed suggestions that the former president was being hounded by the Socialist government.

“It's not us who are asking these judges to launch investigations,” Valls said.

Investigators suspect Sarkozy tried to obtain information from Azibert about confidential proceedings in an illegal election campaign financing case being considered by one of France's highest courts, and that he was tipped off by a senior figure when judges tapped his phones last year.

Sarkozy, 59, has faced virtually non-stop legal battles since he left office following his defeat by the Socialist Party's Hollande in the 2012 presidential vote.

He had been expected to attempt a political comeback in time for the next presidential poll in 2017, but those plans now look to have been wrecked.

He had been widely expected to stand for the presidency of his UMP party later this year in the first step of the comeback, but such a move would be tricky with charges hanging over him. Even if the charges are eventually dropped, that is unlikely to happen for several months.

Sarkozy's close allies denounced what they see as a witch-hunt against their man. “I question the impartiality of one of the judges who is nourished by hatred,” said Nice mayor Christian Estrosi.

Alain Juppe, the former premier seen as Sarkozy's main rival to be the centre-right's candidate in 2017, was more equivocal.

“His defence will demonstrate his innocence, that's what I hope,” Juppe tweeted.

Sarkozy's mother-in-law, Italian actress Marisa Bruni Tedeschi, said the move smacked of a “vendetta.”

“It's just the right moment to cut off his legs from under him,” she told Italy's La Stampa daily. “The move comes precisely at the moment when conditions are being created for him to return as the head of the UMP.”

The case was launched after judges looking into the alleged financing of Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign by former Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi obtained an unprecedented and controversial authorisation to tap the former president's phones from April 2013.

After four fruitless months they discovered Sarkozy had a secret phone registered under an assumed name, and recordings from that device led to the opening of the case in which he has now been charged.

At its root are allegations that Sarkozy was helped to victory in the 2007 election with up to 50 million euros from Kadhafi and envelopes stuffed with cash from France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

He dismisses the Kadhafi claims as ridiculous in light of his leading role in the dictator's 2011 overthrow, and charges against him in the Bettencourt case were dropped last year.

The Kadhafi investigation is ongoing, as are several other cases in which Sarkozy has been implicated.

Among them is a scandal over the funding of his campaign for re-election in 2012 which resulted in the UMP's leader resigning last month.

Jean-Francois Cope stepped down after it emerged that more than 10 million euros spent in support of Sarkozy had been passed off as party expenses.

Cope has since kept a low profile but he voiced support for Sarkozy in terms which underlined the current divisions within the UMP.

“Even if some people declare their friendship for Nicolas while doing everything in their power to block his return, myself and those close to me reaffirm our support for him in this challenge as in the next steps for our political family.”

Sapa-AFP

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