Sarkozy ‘living the hell of allegations’

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has defended himself against the “mad allegations” that he accepted millions of euros in illegal campaign funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“It’s an ignominious act, not just a lie,” Sarkozy said during a live television interview on French station TF1. “I owe the French people the truth: I never betrayed their trust.”

The one-term ex-leader was handed preliminary charges on Thursday in an investigation of his successful 2007 campaign for the French presidency. The charges include illegally funding the campaign, passive corruption and receiving money from Libyan embezzlement.

“I’m not above the law, but I’m not below it either,” Sarkozy, 63, said during the interview.

He was detained and questioned by anticorruption police before he was given the preliminary charges by judges leading the probe. Le Figaro newspaper reported that Sarkozy said in his statement to the investigating judges that “I am accused without any physical evidence”. He said he was “living the hell of this slander” since 2011 and denounced the accusations as lies, according to a text of the statement published by the newspaper.

The allegations were first made in 2011 by Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam.

According to the text, the former President told investigators that the allegations even cost him a re-election bid in 2012 when they re-emerged during the campaign.

Sarkozy’s entourage did not immediately confirm the text’s authenticity, but did not dispute it either.

Investigators are examining allegations that Gaddafi’s regime secretly gave Sarkozy €50 million ($85.3m) for his 2007 presidential election bid.