Alwaght- Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been arrested over a scandal where he is said to have obtained $60 million in election funds from the Libyan dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi.
The criminal case was opened in 2012, but the investigation was subsequently suspended. In 2017 the case was resumed, and the judge brought preliminary charges against Nicolas Sarkozy, stating that prosecutors had enough evidence to start the criminal process.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was detained by French police over 2007 election campaign finance irregularities, according to Le Monde, which cited a source in the court. Sarkozy will soon be questioned as part of the investigation of the case.
According to media reports, Nicolas Sarkozy is currently in custody at the judicial police station in Nanterre. Sarkozy’s time in custody can last for 48 hours before he must be charged, and it is not clear what counts he could face.
In the spring of 2012, a scandal erupted when it was alleged that Sarkozy had received financial support from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi — the French edition of Mediapart published documents stating that Libya allegedly transferred 50 million euros to Sarkozy's presidential campaign ahead of the 2007 presidential election.
In addition, the investigators charged Sarkozy with bribery, the use of an official position for personal purposes and with concealing a breach of state secrecy.
Nicolas Sarkozy was France's President from 2007 to 2012.
Gaddafi, who had ruled Libya for decades, was violently killed in 2011 during a peoples Islamic Awakening movement which later fizzled following a US-led NATO military intervention, in which France participated.
