French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy angrily protested his innocence yesterday after he was charged with corruption over explosive claims that late Libyan dictator Moamer Gadhafi funded his 2007 election campaign.
Sarkozy said allegations he received campaign funding from Gadhafi are making his life “hell”.
The 63-year-old rightwinger said in his court statement, published by the Figaro newspaper, that he had been through “hell” since the allegations emerged in 2011. “I stand accused without any tangible evidence,” he said, demanding he be treated as a witness rather than a suspect.
“In the 24 hours of my detention I have tried with all my might to show that the serious corroborating evidence required to charge someone did not exist.”
The allegations that Sarkozy took money from Gadhafi whom he helped to topple in 2011 are the most serious out of myriad investigations dogging him since he left office in 2012.
