Probe into claim Sarkozy got funds from Gaddafi

France has opened a judicial investigation into allegations former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election bid won illicit funds from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

The inquiry adds to the legal issues plaguing Sarkozy, who some see making a comeback bid in 2017 after losing office last year. The defeat cost him the immunity from prosecution he enjoyed during five years as head of state.

An official at the prosecutor’s office said an inquiry had been opened after allegations made by a Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, himself under investigation in a separate affair of arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s.

Sarkozy, who met Gaddafi in Paris in 2007, denies wrongdoing and has pointed out he was the chief advocate of a NATO-led campaign that resulted in Gaddafi’s overthrow and killing by rebels in 2011.

The funding of Sarkozy’s successful 2007 election campaign is already being examined as part of an inquiry into ties between his centre-right UMP party and France’s richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, heiress of the L’Oreal empire. Sarkozy was placed under investigation last month over allegations he took advantage of the mental frailty of the 90-year-old woman to win campaign funds. Sarkozy denies wrongdoing.