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Nicolas Sarkozy will face trial for corruption and misuse of influence | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Nicolas Sarkozy will face trial over charges he misused his influence to secure leaked details of an inquiry into alleged irregularities in his 2007 election campaign. | |
Earlier this month, the 63-year-old was taken into police custody over claims he received millions in euros in illegal election financing from the regime of the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. | |
Mr Sarkozy will appeal the decision to send him to court, his lawyers have said. | |
The case came about after investigators used phone-taps to examine separate allegations Mr Gaddafi funded Mr Sarkozy’s campaign and began to suspect he had kept tabs on a separate case through a network of informants. | |
The probe is part of a five-year investigation into the funding for his victorious 2007 presidential election campaign. | The probe is part of a five-year investigation into the funding for his victorious 2007 presidential election campaign. |
It was launched to investigate alleged misuse of power, forgery, abuse of public money, and money laundering. | |
In 2012, the investigative news website Mediapart published documents sugegsting Libya made cash payments to Mr Sarkozy's campaign of up to (£44m). | |
The legal campaign funding limit at the time was €21m (£18m). | |
The alleged payments would also have violated French rules on foreign financing and declaring the source of campaign funds. | |
Mr Sarkozy has always denied receiving any illicit campaign funding and has dismissed the Libyan allegations as "grotesque." |