A Paris court says judges were correct to order the tapping of the former French President’s phones.
Compelling evidence Nicolas Sarkozy had been in the pay of Colonel Gaddafi meant judges were correct to order his phones to be bugged, the Paris appeals court has ruled.
In a devastating legal setback for the former French president, his lawyers failed to halt a criminal inquiry into the sleaze allegations. The phone tapping started in April 2013 following claims that Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign was bankrolled by Libya’s late dictator.
The judicial snooping was described by Sarkozy’s lawyer as a “monstrous violation” of his legal rights. But transcripts of the taped conversations supported the hugely damaging corruption case against the 60-year-old.
Nicolas Sarkozy
After hearing rumours that he was being listened to, Sarkozy obtained a second mobile phone, which he used to speak to his lawyer Thierry Herzog under a false identity.
As well as the Gaddafi case, those listening are said to have heard conversations referring to other corruption cases against Sarkozy. Investigators established that Sarkozy and his lawyer were being fed confidential information from case files.