Sarkozy suspected of attempting to pervert course of justice, says report
Judges' bugging of ex-president's telephones lead authorities to believehe sought top secret information from a 'friendly judge', report says
Nicolas Sarkozy is suspected of attempting to pervert the course of justice on the basis of phone taps ordered by judges investigating his links to Muammar Gaddafi, it emerged yesterday.
The revelation was the latest development in the web of corruption cases threatening to ensnare the former French president and destroy his chances of a political comeback.
Judges started tapping Sarkozy's phones last year after opening a formal investigation into allegations that the late former Libyan dictator Gaddafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign, according to newspaper Le Monde.
Judicial sources confirmed a recorded call between Sarkozy and his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, was the basis for a new investigation, opened last week, into a suspected attempt to obtain, via a friendly judge, inside information about ongoing, top secret, proceedings before one of France's highest courts.
The proceedings arise from another election financing scandal in which Sarkozy was embroiled and could affect the outcome of yet another corruption case, centred on a €400 million (HK$4.3 billion) state payout to disgraced tycoon Bernard Tapie.
Herzog said yesterday that Sarkozy "is probably still being tapped" and denounced what he said was a politically motivated plot against his client.
"There was no attempt to pervert the course of justice and in due course this monstrous violation will be shown to have been a political affair," the lawyer said.