Google – AFP,
Odile Duperry (AFP), 22 March 2013
 |
Nicolas
Sarkozy (C, in back of car) leaves the Bordeaux courthouse on
March 21, 2013
(AFP, Patrick Bernard)
|
BORDEAUX —
Nicolas Sarkozy's hopes of a political comeback lay in tatters Friday after the
former French president was charged in connection with a criminal probe into
illegal party financing.
Lawyers for
the right-wing politician immediately announced they would appeal the decision
to indict Sarkozy for taking advantage of elderly L'Oreal heiress Liliane
Bettencourt when she was weakened by poor health.
The move
against Sarkozy came after he was unexpectedly summoned on Thursday for
face-to-face encounters with at least four former members of Bettencourt's
staff, among them her former butler, Pascal Bonnefoy.
 |
French
billionaire L'Oreal heiress Liliane
Bettencourt leaves the Institut de
France
on October 12, 2011, in Paris
(AFP/File, Francois Guillot)
|
Jean-Michel
Gentil, the Bordeaux-based judge in charge of the case, was seeking to
establish how many times Sarkozy had visited Bettencourt during his successful
campaign.
Sarkozy,
58, has always maintained that he visited Bettencourt's residence only once
during the campaign, to meet her late husband. That version of events however
has been contradicted by members of the multi-billionaire's staff.
Sarkozy's
lawyer Thierry Herzog lambasted the decision to charge his client as
"legally incoherent and unfair". He said he would immediately
initiate proceedings to have the charges dropped.
Gentil and
two other examining magistrates spent 12 hours interrogating Sarkozy in
November. They decided not to formally charge him then but to continue
investigating the allegations against him.
Bettencourt
is now 90 and medical experts say her mental capacities began to deteriorate
from the autumn of 2006.
The
allegation is that Sarkozy obtained significant amounts of money from her,
simultaneously breaching electoral spending limits and taking advantage of a
person weakened by ill health.
Bettencourt's
former accountant, Claire Thibout, told police in 2010 that she had handed
envelopes filled with cash to Bettencourt's right-hand man, Patrice de Maistre,
on the understanding it was to be passed on to Sarkozy's campaign treasurer,
Eric Woerth.
Investigators
suspect up to four million euros ($5.2 million) of Bettencourt's cash
subsequently made its way into the coffers of Sarkozy's UMP party.
Sarkozy
lost his immunity from prosecution when he was defeated in the 2012
presidential election by Socialist Francois Hollande.
French
judges demonstrated their readiness to go after former leaders with their
successful pursuit of Sarkozy's predecessor as president, Jacques Chirac. He
was convicted in 2011 on corruption charges related to his time as mayor of
Paris.
Chirac, who
was excused from attending his trial because of ill health, was given a
two-year suspended prison term.
Since
losing to Hollande, Sarkozy has concentrated on making money on the
international conference circuit, but he has repeatedly hinted that he is
considering another tilt at the presidency in 2017.
Earlier
this month he told a magazine that his sense of duty to his country could see
him return to the political arena.
"There
will unfortunately come a time when the question will no longer be 'Do you want
to?' but 'Do you have any choice?'," Sarkozy told Valeurs Actuelles.
Married to
former supermodel Carla Bruni, the right-wing leader won international acclaim
as the principal architect of the 2011 NATO campaign that ousted Libyan
dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
But since
losing office he has had to contend with a string of allegations relating to
his five years in power and various electoral campaigns he has been involved
in.
As well as
the Bettencourt case, he faces probes into alleged cronyism in the awarding of
contracts for opinion polls; an illegal police investigation into journalists;
and alleged kickbacks on a Pakistani arms deal used to finance the right in
1995, when Sarkozy was budget minister.
He has
always denied any wrongdoing and remains popular with right-wing activists
despite being regarded as a divisive figure among the swing voters who tend to
decide French elections.
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