Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been detained on the grounds of financing his election campaign

Sarkozy has been taken into custody in Nanterre at the request of the anti-corruption unit of the judicial police. Currently, he is being interrogated.

The investigation of possible violations in the financing of the 2007 presidential campaign was launched in 2013. He is suspected of illegally raising funds, including from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and heiress of the L’Oreal empire Lillian Betancourt.

It is generally common knowledge that Gaddafi helped Sarkozy run his campaign – after which Sarkozy betrayed him, in his support for the Western coalition operation in Libya.