French website sues former president

The French website Mediapart has sued the country’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy after he filed a lawsuit against the website for accusing him of financial corruption, Press TV reports.


The investigative website had provided documents suggesting that slain Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, had agreed to give Sarkozy 50 million euros (USD 66 million) for his election campaign in 2007.

Sarkozy then dismissed the document published by the left-wing website as “crude forgery.”

The former French President is reportedly also involved in illicit money laundering from arms deals with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

“The independence of the judiciary and its financial means to fight financial corruption has degraded in the past five years. During these years, the government never, not even once, tried to fight financial scams. It was not its priority at all,” Transparency International France’s Daniel Lebegue said.

Last year, former French Budget Minister Eric Woerth was forced to resign after it was revealed that he had close links to L’Oreal billionaire Liliane Bettencourt.

Earlier this week, Francois Hollande was elected as French president, following a meeting with outgoing Sarkozy.