Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy faced a second day of questioning on Wednesday by investigators who are questioning the French former president about allegations that late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi funded his 2007 election campaign.
Sarkozy was seen by a Reuters photographer leaving his home in Paris with his lawyer in a car subsequently seen entering the offices where judicial investigators questioned him on Tuesday.
France opened a judicial inquiry in 2013 into allegations that Sarkozy’s successful 2007 election bid benefited from illicit funds from Gaddafi.
A former minister and close ally of Sarkozy, Brice Hortefeux, was also being questioned by police on Tuesday morning in relation to the Libya investigation, another source close to the probe said.
Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, has always denied receiving any illicit campaign funding and has dismissed the Libyan allegations as “grotesque”.
In January a French businessman suspected by investigators of funneling money from Gaddafi to finance Sarkozy’s campaign was arrested in Britain and granted bail after he appeared in a London court.
Sarkozy has already been ordered to stand trial in a separate matter concerning financing of his failed re-election campaign in 2012, when he was defeated by Francois Hollande.(Reuters/NAN)